• Journal of Ceramic Processing Research
• /
• v.19 no.6
• /
• pp.514-518
• /
• 2018

The direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) has attracted researcher's attention recently, due to its high conversion efficiency and its abundant fuel, carbon. A DCFC mathematical model has developed in two-dimensional, lab-scale, and considers Boudouard reaction and carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation. The model simulates the CO production by Boudouard reaction and additional electron production by CO oxidation. The Boudouard equilibrium strongly depends on operating temperature and affects the amount of produced CO and consequentially affects the overall fuel cell performance. Two different operating temperatures (973 K, 1023 K) has been calculated to discover the CO production by Boudouard reaction and overall fuel cell performance. Moreover, anode thickness of the cell has been considered to find out the influence of the Boudouard reaction zone in fuel cell performance. It was found that in high temperature operating DCFC modeling, the Boudouard reaction cannot be neglected and has a vital role in the overall fuel cell performance.

• Clean Technology
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.426-431
• /
• 2012

Carbon-rich coal can be utilized as a fuel for direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). However, left-behind ash after the electrochemical oxidation may hinder the electrochemical reactions. In this study, we produced ash-free coal (AFC) by thermal extraction and then tested it as a fuel for DCFC. DCFC was built based on solid oxide electrolyte and the electrochemical performance of AFC mixed with $K_2CO_3$ was compared with AFC only. Significantly enhanced power density was found by catalytic steam gasification of AFC. However, an increase of the power density by catalytic pyrolysis was negligible. This result indicated that a catalyst activated the steam gasification reactions, producing much more $H_2$ and thus increasing the power density, compared to AFC only. Results of a quantitative analysis showed much improved kinetics in AFC with $K_2CO_3$ in agreement with DCFC results. A secondary phase of potassium on yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) surface was observed after the cell operation. This probably caused poor long-term behavior of AFC with $K_2CO_3$. A thin YSZ (30 ${\mu}m$ thick) was found to be higher in the power density than 0.9 mm of YSZ.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.309-317
• /
• 2011

The effect of physical properties of coal fuels and carbon particle on performance of DCFC (Direct Carbon Fuel Cell) was investigated. Shenhua and Adaro were selected as coal fuel and carbon particle was used for comparing with coal. The Ultimate, proximate, SEM, XRD, and BET analysis of samples were conducted. The component of char was more important than that of raw coal because the operating temperature of reactor is higher than devolatilization region of coal. The surface area and volume of pores affected significantly the performance of the system than content of fixed carbon or char rates. The performance of DCFC with carbon particle was in proportional to working temperature.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.40 no.11
• /
• pp.697-704
• /
• 2016

Coal modified by acid treatment was investigated to analyze the correlation between the cell performance and electrochemical parameters in a direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). The fuels were subjected to thermogravimetry analysis, gas adsorption test, and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy to investigate the fuel properties and surface characteristics. After the treatment of raw coal, the thermal reactivity of the treated fuels increased, and the specific surface area decreased, though the mean pore diameters of three fuels were similar. The coal treated by $HNO_3$ showed the highest ratio of oxygen to carbon, and also an increase in the surface oxygen groups on the fuel surface. Through comparison between the fuel surface properties and electrochemical performance, it was confirmed that the surface oxygen groups have an influence on the improvement in the DCFC performance.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.188-194
• /
• 2010

Direct Carbon Fuel Cell(DCFC), unlike gas turbines or engines, is a kind of fuel cell which directly generates electricity by electrochemical reaction from a carbon fuel. The advantages of DCFC are higher efficiency and lower emission in comparison with existing power generation facilities. In this study, the effects of CO and $CO_2$ on theoretical potential are examined using the thermodynamic equilibrium method, and the dependence of product on operating temperature is examined via two dimensional CFD method. As a result, when the reaction of CO production (Boudouard reaction) considered, theoretical potential is higher than that in only $CO_2$ reactions, and its value increases as temperature increases. Two dimensional results of computational fluid dynamics(CFD) confirm that the Boudouard reaction becomes more important to be considered as temperature increases and inert gas affects the equilibrium composition of the Boudouard reaction.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.38 no.8
• /
• pp.677-685
• /
• 2014

A direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) generates electricity directly by converting the chemical energy in coal. In particular, a DCFC system with a solid oxide electrolyte and molten carbonate anode media has been proposed by SRI. In this system, however, there are conflicting effects of temperature, which enhances the ion conductivity of the solid electrolyte and reactivity at the electrodes while causing a stability problem for the anode media. In this study, the effect of temperature on the stability of a carbon-carbonate mixture was investigated experimentally. TGA analysis was conducted under either nitrogen or carbon dioxide ambient for $Li_2CO_3$, $K_2CO_3$, and their mixtures with carbon black. The composition of the exit gas was also monitored during temperature elevation. A simplified reaction model was suggested by considering the decomposition of carbonates and the catalyzed Boudouard reactions. The suggested model could well explain both the measured weight loss of the mixture and the gas formation from it.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
• /
• 2009.06a
• /
• pp.392-394
• /
• 2009

Direct Carbon Fuel Cells (DCFCs) generates electricity directly converting the chemical energy in coal. In the present study, effects of anode and current collector materials on the power density of DCFC are investigated experimentally. The adopted DCFC system is combined type of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) with the use of a liquid-molten salt anode and a solid oxide electrolyte, proposed by SRI. Power densities of 25 mm button cells with various combination of anode materials and current collector materials are measured.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.413-420
• /
• 2013

Effect of inherent volatile matters in fuels on electrochemical reactions of anode was investigated for a single direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). Raw coals used as power source in the DCFC release light gases into the atmosphere under the operating temperature of DCFC ($700^{\circ}C$) by thermal decomposition and only char remained. These exhausted gases change the gas composition around anode and affect the electrochemical oxidation reaction of system. To investigate the effect of produced gases, comparative study was conducted between Indonesian sub-bituminous coal and its char obtained through thermal treatment, carbonizing. Maximum power density of raw coal ($52mW/cm^2$) was appeared higher than that of char ($37mW/cm^2$) because the gases produced from the raw coal during thermal decomposition gave additional positive results to electrochemical reaction of the system. The produced gases from coals were analyzed using TGA and FT-IR. The influence of volatile matters on anodic electrolyteelectrode interface was observed by the equivalent circuit induced from fitting of impedance spectroscopy data.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.39 no.6
• /
• pp.527-534
• /
• 2015

This study offers a novel method for improving the physical contact between the anode and fuel in a direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC): a direct generation of carbon in a porous Ni anode through the thermal decomposition of gaseous hydrocarbons. Three kinds of alkane hydrocarbons with different carbon numbers (CH4, C2H6, and C3H8) are tested. From electron microscope observations of the carbon particles generated from each hydrocarbon, we confirm that more carbon spheres (CS), carbon nanotubes (CNT), and carbon nanofibers (CNF) were identified with increasing carbon number. Raman scattering results revealed that the carbon samples became less crystalline and more flexible with increasing carbon number. DCFC performance was measured at $700^{\circ}C$ with the anode fueled by the same mass of each carbon sample. One-dimensional carbon fuels of CNT and CNF more actively produced and had power densities 148 and 210 times higher than that of the CS, respectively. This difference is partly attributed to the findings that the less-crystalline CNT and CNF have much lower charge transfer resistances than the CS.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.24 no.5
• /
• pp.451-460
• /
• 2013

In a direct coal fuel cell (DCFC) system, it is essential to identify volume fraction of coal suspended in electrolyte melt in order to control its dispersion and fluidity. This requirement is compelling especially at anode channel where hot slurry is likely to flow at low velocity. In this study, light scattering techniques were employed to measure the volume fraction for a pulverized coal suspension with relatively high absorption coefficient. The particle size, scattering angle, and volume fraction were varied to evaluate their effects on the scattering behavior as well as scattering regime. The larger coal size and smaller forward scattering angle could provide a shift to more favorable scattering regime, i.e., independent scattering, where interferences of light scattering from one particle with others are suppressed.