Oxidation Characteristics with Various Fuels in a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell

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.