Molten carbonate fuel cells pressure

M.C. Williams, and T.J. George, "Research Issues in Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells Pressurization,at t/ie 1992 lECEC, Vol. 3, pp. 263-267. 

Molten carbonate fuel cells use a mixture of carbonates that are liquid at operating temperature—600°C to 650°C. MCFC, like SOFC, operates at a higher temperature than the PEMFC does it does not require a fuel reformer and it can be operated with a hydrogen-rich fuel. The MCFC s liquid electrolyte means more handling issues. It does not have the ability to be pressurized. The MCFC could serve a niche market of data centers and hospitals. FuelCell Energy has recently made a commercial offering of MCFCs. These fuel cells will probably not have the same market penetration potential as SOFCs and thus would likely have little or no impact as a transition strategy for H2 use. 

Hydrocarbon Technologies, Inc. integrated gasification combined-cycle Kellogg-Rust-Westinghouse process molten carbonate fuel cell methanol-to-gasoline process once-through Fischer-Tropsch process phosphoric acid fuel cell pulverized coal polymer electrolyte fuel cell pressurized fluidized bed combustion 1015 Btu... 

Alvani, C. Roncari, E. Preparation and characterization of y-lithium aluminate tiles for molten carbonate fuel cells. High Temp.-High Pressures 1988, 20 (3), 247-250. 

Sasaki A., Matsumoto S., Fujitsuka M., Shinoki T., Tanaka T., Ohtsuki J., 1993. CO2 recovery in molten carbonate fuel cell system by pressure swing adsorption, JEEE Trans. 

Seo ct al. reported on the development and operation of a 100-kW natural gas fuel processor, tvhich tvas developed for a molten carbonate fuel cell [609]. The molten carbonate fuel cell does not require any carbon monoxide clean-up (see Section 2.3.2), and thus the system consisted merely of a burner to supply the steam reformer, a compressor, heat-exchangers, the desulfurisation stage and the reformer itself. The reformer was built by relying on conventional technology with tubular reactors top-fired externally from the natural gas burner. The 16 steam reformer tubes shown in Figure 9.33 were operated at a S/C ratio of 2.6 and 3-bar pressure, while the design operating temperature was 700 °C. Seo et al. reported that the efficiency of their system was still too low. Therefore, an improved version of the fuel processor is under development. 

Lee CG, Kim DH, Lim HC (2007) Electrode reaction characteristics under pressurized conditions in a molten carbonate fuel cell. J Electrochem Soc 154 B396-B404... 

Halides Halogen-containing compounds are destructive to MCFCs because they can lead to severe corrosion of cathode hardware. Thermodynamic calculations (82) show that HCl and HF react with molten carbonates (LiiCOs and K2CO3) to form CO2, H2O, and the respective alkali halides. Furthermore, the rate of electrolyte loss in the cell is expected to increase because of the high vapor pressure of Li Cl and KCl. The concentration of CF species in coal-derived fuels is typically in the range 1 to 500 ppm. It has been suggested (83) that the level of HCl should be kept below 1 ppm in the fuel gas, perhaps below 0.5 ppm (47), but the tolerable level for long-term operation has not been established. 

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