{"id":11703,"date":"2018-01-27T12:32:02","date_gmt":"2018-01-27T19:32:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/?p=11703"},"modified":"2018-01-27T12:32:02","modified_gmt":"2018-01-27T19:32:02","slug":"solid-carbon-fuel-cell-may-mean-clean-coal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/cafe.foundation\/blog\/solid-carbon-fuel-cell-may-mean-clean-coal\/","title":{"rendered":"Solid Carbon Fuel Cell May Mean \u201cClean Coal\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

For transportation, two types of fuel cells come to mind: PEMs or SOFCs.\u00a0 A third variety, DCFCs, may have a place in transport systems, and may have advantages in using \u201cdirty\u201d fuels.<\/p>\n

PEM (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane \u2013 or Proton Exchange Membrane) cells use a solid polymer as an electrolyte and porous carbon electrodes containing a platinum or platinum alloy catalyst. They need only hydrogen, oxygen from the air, and water to operate. They are typically fueled with pure hydrogen supplied from storage tanks or reformers.<\/p>\n

SOFCs (Solid Oxide Fuel Cells) use a hard, non-porous ceramic compound as the electrolyte. SOFCs are around 60% efficient at converting fuel to electricity. In applications designed to capture and utilize the system’s waste heat (co-generation), overall fuel use efficiencies could top 85%.\u00a0 They operate at high temperatures (1,000\u00b0 C or 1,830\u00b0 F).<\/p>\n

Both PEMs and SOFCs use hydrogen, which must be extremely pure and is therefore often produced at high costs.\u00a0 What if a cheaper fuel were able to be consumed in fuel cells?<\/p>\n

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Dong Ding in Idaho National Laboratory<\/p><\/div>\n

Researchers at the Idaho National Laboratory\u2019s Energy Innovation Laboratory may have a plausible answer<\/a>.\u00a0 DCFCs (Direct Carbon Fuel Cells) can burn solid carbon, such as coal and biomass, and burn it in a way that makes carbon capture easier.\u00a0 Apparently, we can choose between making hydrogen for fuel cells, using processes that are often not totally clean, or we can clean thing up post-consumption.<\/p>\n

Researchers report that \u201cInnovations in the anode, the electrolyte and the fuel allow the fuel cell to utilize more carbon, operate at lower temperatures and show higher maximum power densities than earlier direct carbon fuel cells\u2026.\u00a0 Innovations in the anode, electrolyte and fuel\u2026 \u201cAllow the cell to utilize about three times as much carbon as earlier\u2026cells.\u201d\u00a0 Fuel can include coal, coke, tar, biomass and organic waste.<\/p>\n

Researcher Dong Ding reports, \u201c. “You can skip the energy-intensive step of producing hydrogen,” making the DCFCs potentially more efficient than conventional hydrogen fuel cells.<\/p>\n

To make their design more efficient than earlier DCFCs, the research team designed a fuel cell capable of operating at lower temperatures \u2013 below 600\u00b0 C (1,112\u00b0 F).\u00a0 Earlier cells ran at 700 to 900\u00b0 C (1,292 to 1,652\u00b0 F), \u00a0This requires such cells to be made of expensive materials that can handle the extreme temperatures.<\/p>\n