• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.234-240
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• 2016

The effect of initial electrolyte loading (IEL) on cell performance in a coin-type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) was investigated in this work. Since the material of MCFC depends on the manufacturer, optimisation requires experimental investigation. In total, four IEL values, 1.5, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 g, were used, corresponding to a pore filling ratio (PFR) of 38, 51, 77, and 102%, respectively. The cell performance with respect to the PFR was analysed via steady-state polarisation, step-chronopotentiomtery, and impedance methods. The electrochemical analyses revealed that internal resistance and overpotential of the cell decreased with increasing PFR, and a large overpotential was observed when the PFR was 102%, probably due to the flooding phenomenon. After operation, cross-section of the cell was analysed via surface analysis of SEM and EDS methods, and the remaining electrolyte was estimated by dissolution of the cell in 10 wt% acetic acid. A linear relationship between IEL and the weight reduction ratio by dissolution was obtained. Thus, the remaining amount of electrolyte could be measured after operation. The results of SEM and EDS showed that a PFR of 38 and 102% showed a lack and flooding of electrolytes at the cell, respectively, which led to a large overpotential. This work reports that MCFC performance is allowed only in the narrow range of PFR.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.1 no.2
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• pp.102-111
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• 2010

Molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) power plants are one of most attractive electricity generation systems for the use of biogas to generate high-efficiency ultra-clean power. However, MCFCs are considerably more expensive than comparable conventional electricity generation systems. The commercialization of MCFCs has been delayed more than expected. After being effective in the Kyoto protocol and considerably increasing the fossil price, the attention focused on $CO_2$ regression and renewable energy sources has increased dramatically. In particular, the commercialization and application of MCFC systems fed with biogas have been revived because of the characteristics of $CO_2$ collection and fuel variety of MCFCs. Better economic results of MCFC systems fed with biogas are expected because biogas is a relatively inexpensive fuel compared to liquefied natural gas (LNG). However, the pretreatment cost is added when using anaerobic digester gas (ADG), one of the biogases, as a fuel of MCFC systems because it contains high $H_2S$ and other contaminants, which are harmful sources to the MCFC stack in ADG. Thus, an accurate economic analysis and comparison between MCFCs fed with biogas and LNG are very necessary before the installation of an MCFC system fed with biogas in a plant. In this paper, the economic analysis of an MCFC fed with ADG was carried out for various conditions of electricity and fuel price and compared with the case of an MCFC fed with LNG.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.10 no.2
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• pp.107-118
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• 1999

A 5-kW MCFC stack with $3,000cm^2$ electrode area was tested to investigate cell performance and operation characteristics. The stack performance was evaluated based on electrical output and I-V change. The stack showed high cell performance (7.6 kW) than the design performance and operated for more than 5,760 hours, but a significant temperature gradient inside the stack was observed. A 3-dimensional mathematical model for molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) was developed for the purpose of simulation of stack performance during the operation. The model was solved using PHOENICS, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code. The simulation result demonstrated a close prediction of the temperature gradient and stack performance.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.599-608
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• 2011

The Ni-Al anodes of the molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) with three different structures were successfully fabricated in order to reduce the thickness of the anode down to 0.3 mm; one was the non-supported anode made by a conventional tape casting method, and others were the supported anodes made by lamination or direct casting on the nickel screen. It was seen from the physical analyses and cell operation that the supported thin anodes made by direct casting showed good mechanical strength and cell performance because of a good contact between the anode materials and the support. The single cell using the above anode showed the cell voltage of 0.858 V at the current density of 150$mA/cm^2$ with the nitrogen cross-over of only 0.6% at the operation time of 1,000 h, which was similar to the performance of the conventional thick (0.7 mm) anode. The ability to utilize a thin configuration of anode should cut down the amount of nickel alloy and consequently reduce its manufacturing cost.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.63-70
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• 2016

In this study, ash free coals(AFCs) were produced with lignite and anthracite coals in a microwave. The AFCs were analyzed with proximate analysis, fourier transform infrared spectrometry (FTIR), X-ray diffraction analysis, and thermogravimetric analysis (TGA). The extraction yields of the AFCs were 16.4 wt%, 7.6 wt% at lignite and anthracite coal, respectively. The chemical and physical properties of the AFCs were similar regardless of the original coal types. Oxidation behavior of the AFCs was investigated by supplying a mixture of 3g of AFC and 3g of electrolyte into the coin-type molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC). For the evaluation of AFC fuel performance, electrochemical analysis of the steady-state polarization and step-chronopotentiometry were conducted based on the standard hydrogen fuel (69 mol% $H_2$, 17 mol% $CO_2$, 14 mol% $H_2O$). The AFCs showed similar electrochemical oxidation behaviors regardless of the original coal types. The overvoltage of the AFCs was larger than the hydrogen fuel, although OCV of the AFCs was higher.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
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• v.12 no.7
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• pp.2939-2944
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• 2011

The performance and efficiency of a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell system will improve with the aids of numerical simulations such as finite element analysis. For best simulation results, the virtual model must accurately reflect the actual model including the material properties. It is very difficult, however, to make a detailed numerical model of the stack that consists of hundreds of layers of unit cells composed of various materials like metal, ceramics, polymer, etc. Instead, a practical approach is to find a homogenized material property of the stack as a whole as an approximate replacement. In this paper, the compression ratio of a unit cell is introduced, and a new method is proposed to estimate the homogeneous material properties for both the active and the manifold regions of the stack under the assumption that the compressive deformation occurs only at the separators and matrices in the unit cells. The estimated properties are applied successfully to simulating an actual stack.

• Journal of Electrochemical Science and Technology
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• v.13 no.1
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• pp.112-119
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• 2022

Molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs) are environmentally friendly, large-capacity power generation devices operated at approximately 650℃. If MCFCs are to be commercialized by improving their competitiveness, their cell life should be increased by operating them at lower temperatures. However, a decrease in the operating temperature causes a reduction in the cell performance because of the reduction in the electrochemical reaction rate. The cell performance can be improved by introducing a coating on the cathode of the cell. A coating with a high surface area expands the triple phase boundaries (TPBs) where the gas and electrolyte meet on the electrode surface. And the expansion of TPBs enhances the oxygen reduction reaction of the cathode. Therefore, the cell performance can be improved by increasing the reaction area, which can be achieved by coating nanosized LiCoO₂ particles on the cathode. However, although a coating improves the cell performance, a thick coating makes gas difficult to diffuse into the pore of the coating and thus reduces the cell performance. In addition, LiCoO₂-coated cathode cell exhibits stable cell performance because the coating layer maintains a uniform thickness under MCFC operating conditions. Therefore, the performance and stability of MCFCs can be improved by applying a LiCoO₂ coating with an appropriate thickness on the cathode.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.136-140
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• 2000

A stainless steel separator for a molten carbonate fuel cell is usually coated with aluminum diffusive layer to protect its surface against corrosion by the molten carbonate at high temperatures. In this study, a relatively simple method was devised to form the aluminum diffusive layer on a stainless steel substrate. Slurry coating of aluminum on the substrate followed by heat treatment under reducing atmosphere at $650\~800^{\circ}C$ produced the aluminum diffusive layer of $25\~80{\mu}m$ thickness. The thickness of aluminum diffusive layer increased with increasing the temperature or duration of the heat-treatment. The corrosion resistance against molten carbonate under oxidizing atmosphere was significantly improved by aluminum diffusive layer formed by the sluny painting and heat treatment method. Moreover, the sample prepared in this study showed corrosion behavior similar to the sample with aluminum diffusive layer prepared by ion vapor deposition and heat treatment.

• Korean Journal of Materials Research
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.76-80
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• 1997

'4 NiAl coating process was applied on 316 stainless steel to retard the corrosion of the wet- seal area of separator for the molten carbonate fuel cell. The Nit11 phasc on the stainless steel substrate could be formed by pre-coating with Ni, plated with A1 and ther, heat treated at $800^{\circ}C$ for 3 hr in $H_2/N_2$ gas atmosphere. The corrosion protection behavior of YiAl coating layer was stuilied under immersion condition in molten cxhonate salt($62^{m}/_{o}Li_2CO_3-38^{m}/_{o}/K_{2}CO_{3}$) at $650^{\circ}C$. The NiAl coating layer ticposited on the AiSi 316 stainless steel had high corrosion resistance in molten carbor. dte salt. The corrosion resistance of XiAl (~~jpoared to be associated with the .A1 oxide formed on the surface of coating layer.

• 한국전기화학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.3-4
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• 2002