In this paper a coal-fired power plant with CO2 capture by integrating MCFC (molten carbonate fuel cell) system is studied. Aspen Plus software is used to establish the overall system model. The thermal and economic performances of the new hybrid system are investigated and compared with the benchmark system of coal-fired power plant without CO2 capture and the benchmark system with CO2 capture by using the MEA (Mono ethanol amine) method. The effects of the key parameters on the thermal and economic performances of the new hybrid system are studied. The research results show that compared with the benchmark system without CO2 capture, the efficiency of the new hybrid system is increased and the maximum CO2 capture rate can be 96.21%. While ensuring the high CO2 capture rate, the total efficiency of the new system with CO2 capture can be improved by 4.05 percent points. Compared with the conventional CO2 capture method with the MEA, the CO2 capture method based on the electrochemical method of MCFC proposed, in this paper has the obvious thermal performance advantage, however, its economic performance should be further improved. Achievements in this paper will provide the valuable reference for CO2 capture of coal-fired power plant with low energy consumption. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.