Molten carbonate fuel cell systems can be operated with pure hydrogen or carbonaceous fuel gases, like natural gas. The use of natural gas is of advantage because of the present, widespread distribution network installed by the gas industry. The MCFC is not able to consume the methane directly, because the electrochemical reaction taking place at the anode needs hydrogen. There are various concepts for reforming in work and they can be devided into external, integrated and internal. The most promising are integrated and internal reformers, because they use the waste heat of the fuel cells for the endothermic reforming reaction. Thus, the efficiency of the system can be increased from about 50% to about 65%. Besides of the reforming concepts the paper will handle the thermodynamic background and experimental results achieved in our laboratory.
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