RESTORE Project
Developing a very efficient combined heat and power system for flare gas, by implementing a hybrid cycle combining a micro gas turbine and a SOFC, to avoid flaring while still enabling the reduction of carbon dioxide emissions through carbon capturing.
The RESTORE System
The RESTORE system involves 4 key components working together to convert flare gas into clean energy:
Steam Reformer (SR)
Converts the flare gas into a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide (CO) which can be consumed by the fuel cell and which exploits part of the heat produced by the SOFC and oxy-combustor (OC).
Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC)
Operating at high temperature to produce electricity and heat.
Recuperated Microturbine (MGT)
Equipped with an oxygen-nitrogen separation membrane unit capable of supplying air to the SOFC and oxygen to an oxy-combustor (OC) for burning the fuel not converted in the anode of the SOFC.
Carbon Capturing Unit (CC)
Will condense water from the CO₂ dense exhaust flue gas of the SOFC and OC and recover CO₂ for recycling, storage and further conversion into other useful products.
Main Objective: The main objective of RESTORE will be to design and demonstrate the functioning of the system at TRL 5 level on 3 selected flare gas compositions of interest for the petrochemical industry.
Target Power: 250 kWe (representative of relatively small flares combustion power). The project demonstrator is limited to 25-30 kWe to limit project costs while remaining sufficiently representative of the target product.
Project Ambitions
The ambition of RESTORE is to go beyond the state-of-the-art in several interconnected development topics:
- Achieve beyond 60% of electrical efficiency with a MGT coupled SOFC system
- Achieve a carbon capturing combined heat and power conversion system for petrochemical industry flare gas reducing the CO₂ and NOx emissions by 90% compared to a flare gas burner
- Set up a steam reforming technology for flare gas enabling the output gas to be used for SOFC for associated petroleum gas without reducing the life of the SOFC
- Develop a working oxy-combustor for low calorific anode exhaust gas with a LHV < 4 MJ/kg and O₂ supply
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