Oxidation Characteristics with Various Fuels in a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell

Abstract

This work has been focused on the effect of CO2 and H2O on the overpotential at the cell performance. A reference of Ang and Sammells, the reaction of hydrogen oxidation in molten carbonate has positive orders with the partial pressures of H2, CO2, and H2O. Therefore, the anode requires three gases for H2 oxidation. When the conventional H2 gas (H2:CO2:H2O=0.69:0.17:0.14atm) is used, then the overpotential is expected due to a lack of the CO2 and H2O. Ash free coal (AFC) was employed which was produced by a microwave method with a polar solvent of NMP. Adding CO2 to the AFC fuel in a coin type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), the cell performance was analyzed with electrochemical method of steady state polarization and step chronopotentiometry. It was found that lack of CO2 and H2O induced significant overpotential in the MCFC and generation of them at polarization state mitigated the overpotential.