MOLCAR (Modular system based on MOLten CARbonate fuel cells with tailored composite membranes designed for specific flue gas compositions oriented into CCS integration with an industrial power plant) intends to develop a modular system of CO2 separation from flue gases with the application of the molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) technology.

The project leader is Jarosław Milewski, Ph.D., D.Sc., Eng., a university professor of the Faculty of Power and Aeronautical Engineering, Institute of Heat Engineering.

The project will be carried out in cooperation with the partners: SINTEF in Olso, Norway, and Fuel Cell Poland sp. z o.o., a company based in Puławy, Poland.

The evolving climate change, including CO2 emissions from professional power plants poses a challenge to the broad power sector; the emission reduction process must be highly efficient and yet possibly non-invasive to the classical technology. The MCFC technology will support various sources of flue gases (such as coal-fired or gas-fired power plants) and convert the captured CO2 into a form that could be directed straight to a Sabatier reactor, if needed, to produce synthetic fuel that could be fed into the natural gas network.

Where hydrogen generated from renewable sources is used, CO2 will become a medium of energy storage for large-scale use, thus solving two key issues: CO2 emissions and management of unstable renewable energy while retaining classical power plants (both coal-fired and gas-fired ones), which will become a closing link in CO2 circulation in the natural environment within this framework; this will also reduce fuel imports from abroad.

Supporting the development of junior scientists, international exchange, as well as collaboration between university and industrial partners are all other important aspects of the project.

The project will last three years and has a budget of over PLN 6 million.

The POLNOR CCS 2019 Call is part of the “Applied research” Programme operated under the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2014–2021. The operator of the “Applied research” Programme is the National Centre for Research and Development.

The POLNOR CCS 2019 Call was open for projects in the field of carbon dioxide capture and storage (including: full value chain analysis; social science related to deployment of CCS; CO2 storage pilots; new knowledge facilitating large-scale CO2 storage; and development of CO2 capture technologies integrated in power and industrial processes). 

Six projects were submitted for funding.

The full results of the POLNOR CCS 2019 Call are available on the NCBR website.