Optimization of a direct carbon fuel cell for operation below 700 ℃

摘要

Direct carbon fuel cells (DCFCs) are the most efficient technology to convert solid carbon energy to electricity and thus could have a major impact on reducing fuel consumption and CO_2 emissions. The development of DCFCs to commercialisation stage is largely prohibited by their poor power densities due to the high resistive loss from anode. Here, we report a high-performance Sm_(0.2)Ce_(0.8)O_(1.9) electrolyte-supported hybrid DCFC with Ba_(0.5)Sr_(0.5)Co_(0.8)Fe_(0.2)O_(3-b) cathode and optimised anode configuration. The catalytic oxidation of carbon is improved, which results in an area specific resistance of only 0.41 Ω cm~2 at 650 ℃ at the anode. The hybrid DCFC achieves a peak power density of 113.1 mW cm~2 at 650 ℃ operating on activated carbon. The stability of the fuel cell has also been improved due to the optimised current collection.