The Electrochemical Society, ECS Transactions, 1(7), p. 1733-1740, 2007
DOI: 10.1149/1.2729284
Full text: Unavailable
A rechargeable direct carbon solid oxide fuel cell (RDCFC) that used a solid carbon fuel supplied by thermal decomposition of a hydrocarbon has been developed. Because a solid fuel has a higher energy density compared with gas fuel or liquid fuel, the RDCFC can be expected as a compact, portable power unit. In our previous papers, we reported that the RDCFC with the nickel (Ni) / Gadolinia doped ceria (GDC) anode after a propane charging time of only 5 min, maintained a power density of 44.2~50.4 mW/cm2 for 83 min. In this report, the power-generation characteristics of RDCFC with Ni/GDC anode after a charging of methane were compared with those with Ni/Scandia stabilized zirconia (ScSZ) anode. The fuel utilizations of solid carbon were also evaluated. The RDCFC with Ni/GDC anode showed high and stable characteristics of power generation. However, the performance of the RDCFC with Ni/ScSZ anode had much lower than that with Ni/ GDC anode although the Ni/ScSZ anode had the high performance in dry methane fuel as well as Ni/GDC anode. The fuel utilization of carbon fuel in the RDCFC with Ni/GDC anode charged by methane was ranged from 48 to 58%. Furthermore, by increasing charging time, we demonstrated the power density of RDCFC charged by dry methane was comparable to that of the RDCFC charged by propane.