Ash-Free Coal as Fuel for Direct Carbon Fuel Cell

Abstract

This work describes the performance of direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) fueled by an ash-free coal. Carbon is typically originated from coal that is readily available and economical. However, employing coal in DCFC has been excluded, mainly due to its leftbehind ash after the cell reactions. In the study, carbonaceous ashfree component of coal was extracted using organic solvent, which was then evaluated as a DCFC fuel. An electrolyte-supported SOFC structure was adapted to build DCFC. When an ash-free coal was internally gasified to fuel gases, the power density was improved by more than 20%, compared to N 2 environment. Both an ash-free coal and its reformed gases were found to take part in the electrochemical reactions.

On the utilization of coal samples in direct carbon solid oxide fuel cell technology

“…Various impurities in coal produce side-effects which impact on the anodic electrochemical reaction and lifetime of a DCFC [15,16]. The effect of the presence of ash in solid fuel was previously investigated in coal using a button-sized DC-SOFC with a Ni-YSZ anode [17].…”