Solid hydrocarbon conversion in a fuel cell with molten carbonate electrolyte

Critical Review of Carbon Conversion in “Carbon Fuel Cells”

“…Generally, however, graphitic carbons have high electronic conductivity but poor reactivity, while disordered carbons exhibit poor electrical conductivity but high reactivity. Other studies also reported moderate power densities in the 400–1400 W/m 2 regime and emphasized the importance of carbon microstructure and surface chemistry. − …”

Electrolytes for electrochemical energy storage

“…337,339 Interestingly, the main issue associated with the prolonged use of MCFCs is the degradation of the cell components instead of the decomposition of molten salt electrolyte. The reason is that the cell operating temperature is relatively high (typically between 600 o C to 850 o C due to the high melting temperature of carbonates) 340 when compared to that of hydroxide based fuel cells, 337,[341][342][343][344] which is problematic to the construction materials of the cell components. However, the eutectic carbonate salt mixture is adequately stable at the operating temperatures.…”

Interrelation of anode and cathode processes in electrochemical carbon oxidation in a fuel cell with molten carbonate electrolyte

“…Therefore, the composition of the mixture of agent gases (the oxygen-to-carbon dioxide ratio), which are input to the cathode volume, is one of the key parameters determining the cathode potential and its change as the current runs through the cell [1,27,28,39]. The influence of the mixture gases ratio on the value of voltage in the open circuit of the tested fuel cell is illustrated in Fig.…”

“…Thus, we prevented the influence of processes caused by diffusion in the porous medium of gas mixture components [1,29], which have different solubility rates in electrolyte [30][31][32][33][34]. Results of approval of a fuel cell with a grid cathode [27,28] have shown that the cells have high specific characteristics in using both solid and dispersed samples of hydrocarbon fuel. For instance, using cannel coal, the obtained values of specific power were higher than 90 mW/cm 2 .…”

“…The triple gas/electrolyte/electrode boundary is formed inside the fine-pore layer. In the present work, we used a grid partition [27,28]. Thus, we prevented the influence of processes caused by diffusion in the porous medium of gas mixture components [1,29], which have different solubility rates in electrolyte [30][31][32][33][34].…”