ChemInform Abstract: A Comprehensive Review of Direct Carbon Fuel Cell Technology

ChemInform ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. no-no
Author(s):  
S. Giddey ◽  
S. P. S. Badwal ◽  
A. Kulkarni ◽  
C. Munnings
2012 ◽  
Vol 38 (3) ◽  
pp. 360-399 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Giddey ◽  
S.P.S. Badwal ◽  
A. Kulkarni ◽  
C. Munnings

Author(s):  
Kas Hemmes

Fuel cells are defined as devices that convert chemical energy into heat and electric power. However, depending on their type, fuel cells have special features that can be used advantageously in for instance the chemical process industry of which examples will be given. Nevertheless these new applications use existing fuel cells like the MCFC. This is very exiting and many new possibilities are yet to be explored. However there is no principle reason why we should limit fuel cell technology to present types and the well known fuels like hydrogen, methane and methanol and air as oxidant. Recently interest in the direct conversion of carbon as a fuel has revived which has led to the development of a DCFC (direct carbon fuel cell) based on MCFC technology. Lawrence Livermore National Lab has demonstrated the DCFC successfully on a bench scale size. Also H2S is considered as a fuel. Further ahead opportunities are to be explored by replacing exothermic reaction in the chemical process industry such as partial oxidation reactions by their electrochemical counterpart. Thereby electricity is generated instead of excessive waste heat. Now that fuel cell technology is getting mature we can think of adopting this technology in new dedicated fuel cell types, with relatively short development trajectories, for application in totally new fields where electricity may just be a by-product.


Energies ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (16) ◽  
pp. 4963
Author(s):  
Viviana Cigolotti ◽  
Matteo Genovese ◽  
Petronilla Fragiacomo

Fuel cell technologies have several applications in stationary power production, such as units for primary power generation, grid stabilization, systems adopted to generate backup power, and combined-heat-and-power configurations (CHP). The main sectors where stationary fuel cells have been employed are (a) micro-CHP, (b) large stationary applications, (c) UPS, and IPS. The fuel cell size for stationary applications is strongly related to the power needed from the load. Since this sector ranges from simple backup systems to large facilities, the stationary fuel cell market includes few kWs and less (micro-generation) to larger sizes of MWs. The design parameters for the stationary fuel cell system differ for fuel cell technology (PEM, AFC, PAFC, MCFC, and SOFC), as well as the fuel type and supply. This paper aims to present a comprehensive review of two main trends of research on fuel-cell-based poly-generation systems: tracking the market trends and performance analysis. In deeper detail, the present review will list a potential breakdown of the current costs of PEM/SOFC production for building applications over a range of production scales and at representative specifications, as well as broken down by component/material. Inherent to the technical performance, a concise estimation of FC system durability, efficiency, production, maintenance, and capital cost will be presented.


2013 ◽  
Vol 38 (20) ◽  
pp. 8497-8502 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew C. Chien ◽  
Gale Corre ◽  
Rui Antunes ◽  
John T.S. Irvine

Author(s):  
Jun Jie Chen ◽  
Xu Hui Gao ◽  
Long Fei Yan ◽  
De Guang Xu

Fuel cells are under development for a range of applications for transport, stationary and portable power appliances. Fuel cell technology has advanced to the stage where commercial field trials for both transport and stationary applications are in progress. Direct Carbon Fuel Cells (DCFC) utilize solid carbon as the fuel and have historically attracted less investment than other types of gas or liquid fed fuel cells. However, volatility in gas and oil commodity prices and the increasing concern about the environmental impact of burning heavy fossil fuels for power generation has led to DCFCs gaining more attention within the global study community. A DCFC converts the chemical energy in solid carbon directly into electricity through its direct electrochemical oxidation. The fuel utilization can be almost 100% as the fuel feed and product gases are distinct phases and thus can be easily separated. This is not the case with other fuel cell types for which the fuel utilization within the cell is typically limited to below 85%. The theoretical efficiency is also high, around 100%. The combination of these two factors, lead to the projected electric efficiency of DCFC approaching 80% - approximately twice the efficiency of current generation coal fired power plants, thus leading to a 50% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. The amount of CO2 for storage/sequestration is also halved. Moreover, the exit gas is an almost pure CO2 stream, requiring little or no gas separation before compression for sequestration. Therefore, the energy and cost penalties to capture the CO2 will also be significantly less than for other technologies. Furthermore, a variety of abundant fuels such as coal, coke, tar, biomass and organic waste can be used. Despite these advantages, the technology is at an early stage of development requiring solutions to many complex challenges related to materials degradation, fuel delivery, reaction kinetics, stack fabrication and system design, before it can be considered for commercialization. This paper, following a brief introduction to other fuel cells, reviews in detail the current status of the direct carbon fuel cell technology, recent progress, technical challenges and discusses the future of the technology.


2012 ◽  
Vol 74 ◽  
pp. 267-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Zhou ◽  
X.F. Ye ◽  
L. Shao ◽  
X.P. Zhang ◽  
J.Q. Qian ◽  
...  

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