Help needed involving fuel cells

RCS Next · Aug 21, 2018

Hi all,

I am working for a European terminal specialised in handling methanol and ethanol. During loading and unloading of these products a significant amount of vapours has to be handled (up to 2000 m3/h). These vapours are rich with (m)ethanol. I am looking for a way to use the energy in this vapour, for instance by the use of a fuel cell. At the moment we wash out the alcohols with water and incinerate the watery solution. Electricity is our prefered form of energy, since we have an exothermic proces on site that generates heat for the entire plant.

Thanks for any suggestions and if it is against board rules to mention companies, please pm me.

Regards,

Ruud

moltenmetal · Aug 22, 2018

A solid oxide fuelcell could in theory use either fuel or a combination of them. Will the economics work out? Doubtful, but that's probably your job to determine.

2000 m3/hr- of pure methanol/ethanol vapour? Why not put it into a condenser and recover it?

RCS Next · Aug 27, 2018

Hi @Moltenmetal and others

To condense it is not the easiest way of recovering. A small stream contains petrol for denaturising purposes. For that to condense we have to cool it very deep... By the way would that stream be a problem for the solid oxide fuelcell? Is this technology already industrialised? I mean we don't want to be the first in the world to figure all the problems out, since the entire operation depends on it...

thanks for thinking with me!

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