Performance characteristic of a tubular carbon-based fuel cell short stack coupled with a dry carbon gasifier

Abstract

Abstract A carbon gasified carbon-based fuel cell (CFC) short stack was fabricated and investigated for generating effective carbon fuel cell reactions. Anode-supported tubular CFC cells with a 45 cm 2 active electrode area were used to manufacture the CFC short stack, which was coupled with a dry gasifier induced by a reverse Boudouard reaction. Activated carbon (BET area 1800 m 2 /g) powder was mixed with K 2 CO 3 powder (5 wt.%) and used to fill a dry gasifier as a solid carbon fuel, and pure CO 2 gas was supplied to the gasifier. The CO fuel generated by the reverse Boudouard reaction in the dry gasifier increased the performance of the CFC short stack. The tubular CFC short stack showed a maximum power of 29.4 W at 800 °C. It was operated under a range of operating conditions by changing the operating temperature, flow rate of the pure CO 2 and the thermal cycle operation. The results indicate that the fabricated tubular CFC is a promising power generation system candidate for many practical applications, such as residential power generation (RPG) and stationary power systems.