Results of Organic Fuel Conversion at Fuel Cell Test Installation

Energy conversion today is subject to high thermodynamic losses. About 50% to 90% of the exergy of primary fuels is lost during conversion into power or heat. The fast increasing world energy demand makes a further increase of conversion efficiencies inevitable. The substantial thermodynamic losses (exergy losses of 20% to 30%) of thermal fuel conversion will limit future improvements of power plant efficiencies. Electrochemical conversion of fuel enables fuel conversion with minimum losses. Various fuel cell systems have been investigated at the Delft University of Technology during the past 20 years. It appeared that exergy analyses can be very helpful in understanding the extent and causes of thermodynamic losses in fuel cell systems. More than 50% of the losses in high temperature fuel cell (molten carbonate fuel cell and solid oxide fuel cell) systems can be caused by heat transfer. Therefore system optimization must focus on reducing the need for heat transfer as well as improving the conditions for the unavoidable heat transfer. Various options for reducing the need for heat transfer are discussed in this paper. High temperature fuel cells, eventually integrated into gas turbine processes, can replace the combustion process in future power plants. High temperature fuel cells will be necessary to obtain conversion efficiencies up to 80% in the case of large scale electricity production in the future. The introduction of fuel cells is considered to be a first step in the integration of electrochemical conversion in future energy conversion systems.

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4642272 Integrated fuel cell and fuel conversion apparatus

Heat Recovery Systems and CHP ◽

10.1016/0890-4332(87)90116-5 ◽

1987 ◽

Vol 7 (4) ◽

pp. iv

Keyword(s):

Fuel Cell ◽

Fuel Conversion

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Numerical Study on Humidification Performance of Fuel Cell Test Platform Humidifier

Energies ◽

10.3390/en12203839 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 12 (20) ◽

pp. 3839 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Tiancai Ma ◽

Kai Wang ◽

Qiongqiong Zhou ◽

Weikang Lin ◽

Ming Cong ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Fuel Cell ◽

Water Temperature ◽

Numerical Study ◽

Proton Exchange ◽

Operating Conditions ◽

Air Velocity ◽

Humidity Control ◽

Test Platform ◽

Temperature And Humidity ◽

Cell Test

Temperature and humidity are important parameters in the operation of proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC), which have an important impact on the performance of fuel cell. Fuel cell test platform is an important tool to study the performance of fuel cells, and its temperature and humidity control module is also the key in the research process of the test platform, so that it can provide the gas with precise temperature and humidity control during the test process of the fuel cell. In this paper, a humidifier combined with bubbling and spraying is adopted for the application of test platform, and the numerical simulation model of the humidifier is established. According to the model, the influence of operating conditions of humidifier on humidification performance is verified, such as inlet air velocity and the humidifying water temperature. The results indicate that the inlet air velocity and the humidifying water temperature have great influence on the humidifying performance of the humidifier. The humidifying performance decreases with the increase of the inlet air velocity and increases with the increase of the humidifying water temperature respectively. In addition, the humidification performance of the humidifier is verified.

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