Acta Phys. -Chim. Sin. ›› 2017, Vol. 33 ›› Issue (8): 1614-1620.doi: 10.3866/PKU.WHXB201704181

• ARTICLE • Previous Articles     Next Articles

A High Performance Direct Carbon Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack for Portable Applications

Xiao-Qiang. WANG1,Jiang. LIU1,*(),Yong-Min. XIE1,2,Wei-Zi. CAI1,3,Ya-Peng. ZHANG1,Qian. ZHOU1,Fang-Yong. YU1,4,Mei-Lin. LIU1,5   

  1. 1 New Energy Research Institute, School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, P. R. China
    2 Institute of Metallurgy and Chemical Industry, Jiangxi University of Science and Technology, Ganzhou 341000, Jiangxi Province, P. R. China
    3 Department of Building and Real Estate, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong 999077, P. R. China
    4 Institute of Chemical Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255000, Shandong Province, P. R. China
    5 School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, 771 Ferst Drive, Atlanta, GA 30332-0245, USA
  • Received:2017-02-17 Published:2017-06-14
  • Contact: Jiang. LIU E-mail:jiangliu@scut.edu.cn
  • Supported by:
    The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21276097);The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21567008);The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(21263005);Special Funds of Guangdong Province Public Research and Ability Construction, China(2014A010106008);Guangdong Innovative and Entrepreneurial Research Team Program, China(2014ZT05N200);and Program of Excellent Ph.D Thesis Authors of Guangdong Province, China

Abstract:

A direct carbon solid oxide fuel cell (DC-SOFC) stack was prepared with 3 tubular cells electrically connected in series. To increase carbon storage in the stack, the anode was fabricated outside the tubular cells so that carbon fuel can be loaded at the exterior of the stack, which is more spacious than the interior. The 3-cell-stack is operated directly with carbon as the fuel and oxygen in ambient air as the oxidant. With a total effective area of 10.2 cm2 and a 5% (w) Fe-loaded activated carbon fuel of 17 g, the stack reveals a peak power of 4.1 W at 800℃. The stack discharged at a constant current of 1.0 A for 19 h, giving a charge capacity of 19 A·h and an energy capacity of 31.6 W·h, which are much higher than those of a similar stack with anode on the inside and carbon loaded at the interior. The high capacity of our DC-SOFC opens up potential applications in portable devices.

Key words: Solid oxide fuel cell, Carbon fuel, Segmented-in-series stack, Carbon-air battery, Portable application