Abstract
The adoption of technologies for the separation, capture and subsequent storage of CO2 for geological time periods through injection into the subsoil (CCS, Carbon Dioxide Capture & Storage), has emerged as a key approach to reduce CO2 emissions from upstream emitting sources, to comply with EU-ETS directives on emissions control, which force polluting industries to reduce their CO2 emissions below given limits. However, the significant investments required, and the energy intensive nature of conventional capture processes, have fuelled the ongoing debate on the effectiveness of this means of reducing CO2 emissions. This thesis considers, as an alternative to conventional CCS, non-conventional systems to capture and concentrate emissions, through the use of both a Molten-carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) configured as an electrical power generator, and the same fuel cell configured as an electrolyser (MCEC), therefore absorbing a limited amount of electrical power. These systems will be set up in a cascade in settings which reproduce typical conditions of large scale high- CO2 emission environments, and compared through a technical-economic analysis.