Life cycle assessment of plasma gasification integrated molten carbonate fuel cells and chemical looping reforming using RDF feedstock

Abstract

Refused derived fuel (RDF) is finding suitable applications in thermochemical conversion methods, including plasma gasification, to generate clean syngas. This addresses both the challenges of sustainable energy and waste management. In this study, RDF waste is utilized in a plasma gasification unit integrated with combined cycle, molten carbonate fuel cell (IPGCC-MCFC) and chemical looping reforming (IPGCC-CLR) systems for the co-generation of hydrogen and electricity. The simulations of the proposed plants are conducted using Aspen Plus software, and subsequently, the techno-economic assessment and life cycle analysis are performed. The results indicated that the highest net overall energy efficiency of 66.05%, lowest cost of electricity of 74.90 $ per MW h and levelized cost of hydrogen of 1.02 $ per kg, can be obtained for the IPGCC-CLR system. This improved the energy return on investment to 2.89 MW/MW as compared to 1.69 MW/MW for the IPGCC-MCFC plant. The life cycle analysis estimated the total fossil fuel consumption of 5.06–6.16 MJ s⁻¹ and CO₂ emissions of 285.14–335.61 g_CO2eq. s⁻¹ throughout the project duration. The plants reduce fossil fuel consumption by 1.5 times and CO₂ emissions by 3 times as compared to the reported literature. Moreover, the analyses of other factors of environmental impact types of acidification potential, eutrophication potential, human toxicity potential, etc., show that the RDF processing stage contributes the largest pollution, followed by hydrogen compression and the transportation stage. The emissions can be minimized by replacing fossil fuels with hydrogen-based products at every stage.