Development of MCFC Work

The work of Baur et al. (1916) and subsequent work by Baur and co-workers must be counted as the first work in the field of MCFCs. It is important to note that the solid electrolyte (a mixture of monazite sand and other components, including alkali metal carbonates) with which O. Davtyan worked in the 1930s, actually represented a carbonate melt immobilized in a solid skeleton of silicates (Davtyan, 1947). 

Work on MCFCs was resumed in the 1960s in many places for example, in the Institute of High-Temperature Electrochemistry in Ekaterinburg, Russia (Stepanov, 1972-1974) and in the Institute of Gas Technology in Chicago (Baker et al., 1980). A large contribution to this field was made by Broers and Ketelaar (1961) in Amsterdam. 

Work to build power plants on the basis of MCFCs has also been done at UTC and a number of companies in different countries in Germany by MTU CFC Solutions GmbH, Munich (jointly with FCE in the United States), in Italy by Ansaldo S.p.a., in Japan by Ishikawajima Harima Heavy Industries Co., and others. 

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