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The carbonate fuel cell—concept to reality
Author(s) -
Farooque M.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: energy and environment
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.158
H-Index - 35
eISSN - 2041-840X
pISSN - 2041-8396
DOI - 10.1002/wene.124
Subject(s) - molten carbonate fuel cell , hydrogen fuel , fuel cells , carbonate , waste management , process engineering , electricity generation , environmental science , regenerative fuel cell , materials science , chemical engineering , engineering , chemistry , power (physics) , metallurgy , physics , electrode , quantum mechanics , anode
The high temperature carbonate fuel cell is an ultraclean and high efficiency power generator. Its operating temperature, ∼550–650°C, is considered optimum to facilitate fast reaction kinetics, utilize waste heat efficiently, and at the same time allow use of commercial commodity construction materials and well‐established manufacturing processes which permit cell construction in large sizes. Also, the carbonate fuel cell can be equipped with the unique capability to generate hydrogen within the fuel cell from a hydrocarbon fuel allowing a simpler power plant system design. Because of these favorable attributes, the carbonate fuel cell is leading commercial deployment for clean distributed power. The carbonate fuel cell power plants are currently available in the size ranges 350 kW, 1.4 MW, and 2.8 MW. These plants are installed at numerous locations worldwide and have delivered 2.0 GWh of ultraclean electricity (as of mid‐December, 2013). Carbonate fuel cell technology and product status is described in this article. WIREs Energy Environ 2015, 4:178–188. doi: 10.1002/wene.124 This article is categorized under: Fuel Cells and Hydrogen > Science and Materials