Biomass-fuelled PEMFC systems: Evaluation of two conversion paths relevant for different raw materials

Abstract

Biomass-fuelled polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells (PEMFCs) offer a solution for replacing fossil fuel with hydrogen production. This paper uses simulation methods for investigating biomass-fuelled PEMFCs for different raw materials and conversion paths. For liquid and solid biomass, anaerobic digestion (AD) and gasification (GF), respectively, are relatively viable and developed conversion technologies. Therefore, the AD-PEMFC system and the GF-PEMFC system are simulated for residential applications in order to evaluate the performance of the biomass-fuelled PEMFC systems. The results of the evaluation show that renewable hydrogen-rich gas from manure or forest residues is usable for the PEMFCs and makes the fuel cell stack work in a stable manner. For 100 kWe generation, the GF-PEMFC system yields an excellent technical performance with a 20% electric efficiency and 57% thermal efficiency, whereas the AD-PEMFC system only has an 9% electric efficiency and 13% thermal efficiency due to the low efficiency of the anaerobic digester (AD) and the high internal heat consumption of the AD and the steam reformer (SR). Additionally, in this study, the environmental performances of the AD-PEMFC and the GF-PEMFC in terms of CO2 emission offset and land-use efficiency are discussed. © 2015 Elsevier Ltd.