Problems in the AFC Field

After the tragical 1984 Bhopal accident in India, UCC stopped all work on this project. Karl Kordesch then continued his research at the Technical University of Graz, Austria (Cifrain and Kordesch, 2004). 

In either version, cells of the bipolar type assembled to batteries of the filter-press t5q)e can be used. The version with circulating electrolyte is also feasible for building monopolar ( jai -type) cells that are cheaper than bipolar types (as they do not require expensive bipolar plates) and offer a highly flexible series-parallel switching within the battery to accommodate specific user needs. 

An important advantage of batteries with circulating electrolyte is the much simpler shutdown and restart procedure by simply stopping and restarting elecflolyte circulation. For a cold start-up, in particular, only the tank holding the elecflolyte solution has to be heated, rather than the entire battery. 

The chief problems that arise in the design of fuel cells with circulating elecflolyte are those of providing perfect sealing of the full loop, and of sufficient high corrosion resistance of all parts (pipe sections, pipe junctions, pumps, and valves) toward the hot alkaline solution. 

Any carbon dioxide getting into the KOH solution binds (neutralizes) alkali yielding 

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