Fuel Elements with Direct Electrochemical Oxidation of Coal

摘要

Increasing attention to alternative technologies of production of electricity, including hydrogen power engineering [1], has stimulated an abrupt increase in investigations in the region of electrochemical genera_tors based on fuel cells (FC) [2, 3]. The absence of harmful exhausts, noiselessness, compactness, and high efficiency are the main advantages of FCs, which allow one to position them as the most effective facili_ties providing direct transformation of the chemical energy of the fuel to electricity. However, in order to apply hydrogen as the main energy carrier, consider_able temporal and material expenses will still be required [I]. In the foreseeable future, the main source of electricity, as before, will be hydrocarbons, primarily coal. Therefore, the development of effective electro_chemical generators operating on the basis of coal and other solid hydrocarbons [2, 4] would allow one to soften the acuteness of the problems of power engineer_ing for the near future.