A novel polygeneration system integrating the acetylene production process and fuel cell

This paper presents a novel polygeneration system that integrates the acetylene process and the use of fuel cells. The system produces acetylene and power by a process of the partial oxidation/combustion (POC) of natural gas process, a water–gas shift reactor, a fuel cell and a waste heat boiler auxiliary system to recover the exhaust heat and gas from the fuel cell. Based on 584.3 kg/h of natural gas feedstock, a POC reactor temperature of 1773 K, an absorber pressure of 1.013 MPa and a degasser pressure of 0.103 MPa, the simulation results show that the new system achieved acetylene production of 1.9 MW, net electricity production of 1.7 MW, power generation efficiency of 26.8% and exergy efficiency of 43.4%, which was 20.2% higher than the traditional acetylene production process. The new system's exergy analysis and the flow rate of the products were investigated, and the results revealed that the energy conversion and systematic integration mechanism demonstrated the improvement of natural gas energy conversion efficiency.