FuelCell Energy’s CO2 Recovery platform also helps food and beverage producers capture CO2 from their own operations, but it pulls that CO2 from the exhaust streams of coal- or gas-fired power plants. The system could be used in any plant that uses natural gas or boilers to power its processes. But it makes most sense in a plant that needs CO2 for its processes, therefore using the recovery system as a value stream for the plant, helping to reduce operational costs and supply chain issues.
With this in mind, FuelCell Energy addresses three key sectors: beverage production and bottling, flash freezing, and meat processing. “It’s a huge part of what goes into [the meat} industry of stunning animals humanely, how they flash freeze the meat, how they chill the meat, how it’s ground—that all includes CO2 in different capacities,” Cole says.
To operate, the company’s molten carbonate fuel cell needs a methane-rich stream coming in, and then the system separates out the CO2 molecules. “We’re not using combustion in this process,” Cole explains. “This is a chemical process that happens as just part of how the fuel cell creates electricity, CO2, and heat.”
The liquefied CO2 is stored at the manufacturer’s facility to be used in processes there. For beverage producers putting CO2 into drinks, the CO2 is purified to beverage grade (following ISBT standards) before being stored on site. “Our anode gas—the gas that’s coming off of the fuel cell to begin with—that CO2 stream is super, super pure, so it doesn’t take us very much to get it up to that beverage-grade level vs. other sources that you look at that are combustion-based,” Cole says.
In FuelCell Energy’s recovery process, fuel cells electrochemically react fuel and air to create power. Heat also comes off the fuel cells, creating another value stream. “You’ve got the CO2, the power for the plant, as well as heat, so we could put this heat as hot water back into the boilers,” Cole says.
Fuel cells can be configured as microgrids, supplying power during normal operation and in the event of a disturbance. “Our smaller unit is the 1.4 MW, and that gets downgraded a little bit to offset for the production of the CO2 itself,” Cole says. “They’re typically running 24/7, and we’re making CO2 in that process. Our 1.4 MW makes about 10 tons of CO2 a day. Our larger unit, the 2.8 MW, is making 20 tons a day.”
A small bottler will likely not have more need than 10 tons a day, Cole adds. “If you’re looking at a larger meat processing plant, they’re using 30 to 50 tons a day.”