Abstract :
The molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) has several potential advantages over low-temperature fuel cells by virtue of its operating temperature of 650°C. This temperature allows the reforming of, for examples, methane from natural gas in the fuel cell stack itself, resulting in reduced systems cost and increased efficiency. In addition, high temperature waste heat is available for industrial processes or bottoming cycles. Furthermore, CO, which is produced in almost all fossil fuel conversion processes, can be used as fuel instead of acting as a poison as in other types of fuel cell. Drawbacks of MCFCs are the high corrosivity of the electrolyte at the operating temperature and the need for a continuous supply of CO2 to the cathode. Research into and development of MCFCs actually started in 1950 by Ketelaar and Broers when they investigated an earlier idea of Davtyan. Since then, a lot of progress has been made with respect to understanding the cell mechanisms, improving the materials, the performance, the manufacturing techniques and up-scaling. This resulted a few years ago in proof-of-principle tests at the 100 kWe level. At present, the MCFC is the first demonstration phase with full-scale systems at the 250 kWe to 2 MWe level, marking the transition from fundamental and applied R&D to product development or from a technology push to a market pull situation. This paper reviews the most important remaining as well as expected new issues to be resolved.
