FUEL CELLS FED BY BIOGAS OBTAINED BY THE ANAEROBIC DIGESTION OR BY THE DIRECT FERMENTATION OF FOOD-INDUSTRY WASTE BIOMASSES

摘要

The results of a coordinated series of laboratory experiments on the possibility to feed PAFC systems with low-enthalpy by-product fuels and of some evaluations based on them, but of possible industrial interest, are briefly reviewed in this paper. The reviewed experiments were on: methanol, natural gas and landfill gas fuel cell feeding; anaerobic digestion of beet-washing waters in a beet-sugar refinery; direct fermentation of milk whey to H_2-rich gas mixtures. The reviewed evaluations were on cheese whey or H_2 as fluid vectors of energy from the cheese factory to the fuel cell generator. Some possible market niches for biogas-fed fuel cells are pointed out for the food industry., but not only.