A Multiphysics model for a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) developed in COMSOL. This is a multiphysics model for a MCFC. It has been built using COMSOL Multiphysics®. It enables the user to investigate the composition of the fuel and flue gases as well as the design parameters (e.g. the thickness of the electrolyte) on the performance of the fuel cell and the efficiency of CO2 capture. For example, the impact of CO2 concentration in the flue gas on the fuel cell performance and the carbon capture factor (which is a measure on how much CO2 has been concentrated from the flue gas) could be evaluated. One of the key findings show that the fuel cell performance improves and the carbon capture factor decreases with increasing CO2 in the flue gas. A process model for liquid fuel production through reverse water gas shift (RWGS) and Fischer-Tropsch (FT) developed in Aspen Plus. The model enables the user to examine the production of liquid fuels through CO2 hydrogenation followed by FT synthesis. The user can test different conditions for the RWGS such as H2/CO2 ratio and temperature and investigate how these changes affect the CO2 conversion. The product distribution for the FT follows the Anderson–Schulz–Flory (ASF) distribution. The ASF model is applied in a FORTRAN calculator and assumes a chain growth probability factor (α) of 0.9; the user may change the value of α and investigate how this affects the product distribution. A CO2 compression model developed in Aspen Plus. The model liquefies the captured CO2 stream through multistage compression with intermediate cooling and water condensation/removal. UKCCSRC Flexible Funds 2020.
