Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell with Separate CO[sub 2] Gas Supply

Abstract

A molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) unit cell design (i‐MCFC) is introduced. In the i‐MCFC, the gas necessary for the cathode operation is supplied separately from the cathode gas by means of an additional gas channel through the electrolyte tile (matrix). Therefore the i‐MCFC cathode can be operated on air or . With the i‐MCFC an MCFC with extended potential for integration in other systems, trigeneration, is obtained. Furthermore when adding a small appropriate partial pressure to the cathode gas, the dissolution which is a main problem limiting the MCFC lifetime, is solved even when the cell is operated at elevated pressures. Laboratory scale cells built according to the i‐MCFC design, operated at cathode gas, performed better than the same cells driven under standard MCFC conditions. When using air as cathode gas the performance is comparable. Our cells suffered from a large ohmic resistance, but the expected large diffusion loss due to and/or diffusion was not observed. ©1999 The Electrochemical Society