Molten-carbonate fuel-cell system verification and scale-up

Technical Report · Thu Jul 01 04:00:00 EDT 1982

OSTI ID:5153432

King, J M; Reiser, C A; Schroll, C R

The goal of this four year project is to show that tall stacks of subscale molten carbonate fuel cells operate properly with advanced fuel processors and key system ancillaries at conditions expected in a power plant. The effort is carried out in three tasks: (1) testing a 20-cell stack of an early design at ambient pressure and subsequently at elevated pressure, (2) testing a 10-cell stack of an improved design at elevated pressure and with carbonate vapor scrubbers and a catalytic burner and (3) testing a stack of 100 or more cells with a distillate fueled adiabatic reformer and other key ancillaries in a breadboard power plant system of 10 kW dc rating. This second interim report describes effort during the 17th through 36th months of the contract. Subscale molten carbonate stacks were operated successfully at pressure (65 psia). All aspects of the stack and pressure vessel design operated properly. After 1450 hours of testing under this contract, one stack operated for an additional 1560 hours under DOE funding. Stack performance was the highest yet achieved, cell-to-cell performance reproducibility was good and the stack showed excellent tolerance to pressure transients and to start-stop cycles. A stack corrosion problem resulting in a reduction of end cell performance with time was identified. A solution is being evaluated in a complementary effort. Tests of a number of approaches to scrubbing electrolyte from the cell exhaust were unsuccessful. The issue is still under investigation. A catalytic burner operated successfully on the anode exhaust. Fabrication of the test stand and adiabatic reformer for Task 3 was completed and fabrication of stack components for this test was initiated.

• Research Organization: United Technologies Corp., South Windsor, CT (USA). Power Systems Div.
• OSTI ID: 5153432
• Report Number(s): EPRI-EM-2502; ON: DE82906441
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION
300501 -- Fuel Cells-- Design & Development
300502* -- Fuel Cells-- Performance & Testing
AUTOTHERMAL REFORMER PROCESSES
CARBON COMPOUNDS
CARBON MONOXIDE
CARBON OXIDES
CHALCOGENIDES
CHEMICAL REACTIONS
CORROSION
DESULFURIZATION
DIRECT ENERGY CONVERTERS
ELECTROCHEMICAL CELLS
ELEMENTS
FLUIDS
FUEL CELL POWER PLANTS
FUEL CELLS
FUEL GAS
FUEL SYSTEMS
FUELS
GAS FUELS
GAS GENERATORS
GASES
HIGH-TEMPERATURE FUEL CELLS
HYDROGEN
LEAKS
LOW BTU GAS
MOLTEN CARBONATE FUEL CELLS
NONMETALS
OXIDES
OXYGEN COMPOUNDS
PERFORMANCE TESTING
POWER PLANTS
REFORMER PROCESSES
SCALE MODELS
STRUCTURAL MODELS
TESTING