Combined Heat and Power Cogeneration from Bioethanol and Fuel Cells: A Brief Overview on Demonstrative Units and Process Design

Different strategies have been proposed for the co-generation of heat and power (CHP) from renewable raw materials. Bioethanol was proposed by many authors as a promising biomass derived compound, being easy to handle, non toxic, with sufficiently high power density. Innovativeroutes for its production as second generation biofuel are becoming available,leading to environmentally, ethically and economically sustainable bioethanol. The economical plan proposed by Biochemtex, for instance, is based on 0.3 euro/L for the production of lignocellulosic anhydrous bioethanol and a brief overview of the bioethanol production costs has been very recently proposed. Thus, bioethanol can be effectively suggested as a feedstock for fuel cell based systems.

Ethanol can be used as substrate for steam reforming and the reformate can feed various types of fuel cells. For instance, Solid OxideFuel Cells (SOFCs) are currently under study both for stationary and automotivepower generation, the latter application with very short commercialisation perspective, according to the latest news.