A fuel cell is a device that generates electricity by a chemical reaction.

Every fuel
cell has two electrodes, one positive and one negative, called, respectively, the
cathode and anode. The reactions that produce electricity take place at the
electrodes.
Every fuel cell also has an electrolyte, which carries electrically charged particles
from one electrode to the other, and a catalyst, which speeds the reactions at the
electrodes.
Hydrogen is the basic fuel, but fuel cells also require oxygen. One great appeal of
fuel cells is that they generate electricity with very little pollutionmuch of the
hydrogen and oxygen used in generating electricity ultimately combine to form a
harmless byproduct, namely water.
One detail of terminology: a single fuel cell generates a tiny amount of direct
current (DC) electricity. In practice, many fuel cells are usually assembled into a
stack. Cell or stack, the principles are the same.


The purpose of a fuel cell is to produce an electrical current that can be directed
outside the cell to do work, such as powering an electric motor or illuminating a
light bulb or a city. Because of the way electricity behaves, this current returns to
the fuel cell, completing an electrical circuit.
There are several kinds of fuel cells, and each operates a bit differently. But in
general terms, hydrogen atoms enter a fuel cell at the anode where a chemical
reaction strips them of their electrons. The hydrogen atoms are now ionized,
and carry a positive electrical charge. The negatively charged electrons provide
the current through wires to do work. If alternating current (AC) is needed, the
DC output of the fuel cell must be routed through a conversion device called an
inverter.
Oxygen enters the fuel cell at the cathode and, in some cell types (like the one
illustrated above), it there combines with electrons returning from the electrical
circuit and hydrogen ions that have traveled through the electrolyte from the
anode. In other cell types the oxygen picks up electrons and then travels through
the electrolyte to the anode, where it combines with hydrogen ions.
The electrolyte plays a key role. It must permit only the appropriate ions to pass
between the anode and cathode. If free electrons or other substances could
travel through the electrolyte, they would disrupt the chemical reaction.
Whether they combine at anode or cathode, together hydrogen and oxygen form
water, which drains from the cell. As long as a fuel cell is supplied with hydrogen
and oxygen, it will generate electricity.
Even better, since fuel cells create electricity chemically, rather than by
combustion, they are not subject to the thermodynamic laws that limit a
conventional power plant. Therefore, fuel cells are more efficient in extracting
energy from a fuel. Waste heat from some cells can also be harnessed, boosting
system efficiency still further.

Both molten carbonate and solid oxide fuel cells are high-temperature devices.
As such, the technical history of both cells seems rooted in similar lines of
research, with significant divergence appearing in the late 1950s.
In the 1930s, Emil Baur and H. Preis in Switzerland experimented with high-
temperature, solid oxide electrolytes. They encountered problems with electrical
conductivity and unwanted chemical reactions between the electrolytes and
various gases (including carbon monoxide). The following decade, O. K. Davtyan
of Russia explored this area further, but with little success. By the late 1950s,
Dutch scientists G. H. J. Broers and J. A. A. Ketelaar began building on this
previous work and decided that limitations on solid oxides at that time made
short-term progress unlikely. They focused instead on electrolytes of fused
(molten) carbonate salts.
By 1960, they reported making a cell that ran for six months using an electrolyte
"mixture of lithium-, sodium- and / or potassium carbonate, impregnated in a
porous sintered disk of magnesium oxide." However, they found that the molten
electrolyte was slowly lost, partly through reactions with gasket materials. About
the same time, Francis T. Bacon was working with a molten cell using two-layer
electrodes on either side of a "free molten" electrolyte. At least two groups were
working with semisolid or "paste" electrolytes and most groups were
investigating "diffusion" electrodes rather than solid ones.
In the mid-1960s, the U.S. Army's Mobility Equipment Research and
Development Center (MERDC) at Ft. Belvoir tested several molten carbonate
cells made by Texas Instruments (see photo above). These ranged in size from
100 watts to 1,000 watts output and were designed to run on "combat gasoline"
using an external reformer to extract hydrogen. The Army especially wanted to
use fuels already available, rather than a special fuel that might be difficult to
supply to field units.

In a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC), carbonate salts are the electrolyte.
Heated to 650 degrees C (about 1,200 degrees F), the salts melt and conduct
carbonate ions (CO3) from the cathode to the anode. At the anode, hydrogen
reacts with the ions to produce water, carbon dioxide, and electrons. The
electrons travel through an external circuit, providing electrical power along the
way, and return to the cathode. There, oxygen from air and carbon dioxide
recycled from the anode react with the electrons to form CO3 ions that replenish
the electrolyte and transfer current through the fuel cell.
High-temperature MCFCs can extract hydrogen from a variety of fuels using
either an internal or external reformer. They are also less prone to carbon
monoxide "poisoning" than lower temperature fuel cells, which makes coal-
based fuels more attractive for this type of fuel cell. MCFCs work well with
catalysts made of nickel, which is much less expensive than platinum. MCFCs
exhibit up to 60 percent efficiency, and this can rise to 80 percent if the waste
heat is utilized for cogeneration. Currently, demonstration units have produced
up to 2 megawatts (MW), but designs exist for units of 50 to 100 MW capacity.

- Pt or other precious metals are not necessary because the fuel cell can
operate at relatively high temperatures.
- Many kinds of fuels can be used even with coexisting CO, and the MCFC is
very suitable for coal gas utilization.
- Internal reforming is possible, which leads to the efficient use of waste heat.
- High electric power generation efficiency is estimated up to 55 -/60% using
a bottoming cycle such as a steam turbine.
CO2 condensation or separation is possible because the mobile ionic substance
through the electrolyte is CO3
2-
.
The electrolyte is suspended in a porous, insulating and chemically inert ceramic
(LiAlO2) matrix. At the high operating temperatures in MCFCs, noble metals are
not required for electrodes; nickel (Ni) or its alloy with chromium or aluminium
can be used as anode, and nickel oxide (NiO) as cathode. The cell performance is
sensitive to operating temperature. A change in cell temperature from 650 C to
600 C results in a drop in cell voltage of almost 15%

Molten carbonate fuel cells demand such high operating temperatures that most
applications for this kind of cell are limited to large, stationary power plants. Yet
consumers might benefit from this type of cell, even if they never see it in their
homes. The high operating temperature opens the opportunity of using waste
heat to make steam for space heating, industrial processing, or in a steam turbine
to generate more electricity. Many modern gas-fired power plants exploit this
type of system, called cogeneration.
In the early 1990s, Ishikawajima Heavy Industries in Japan successfully operated
a 1,000 watt molten carbonate fuel cell power generator for 10,000 continuous
hours. Now at least ten Japanese companies are working on MCFCs. M-C Power
Corporation of Illinois installed a 250 kw MCFC unit at the Miramar Marine
Corps Air Station in San Diego (see photo at left) in 1997. The fuel cell ran briefly,
producing about 160 mwh and generating steam for use on the base. In spring
1999, the company installed a new 75 kw stack at Miramar and began a test
program intended to gradually scale up the installation--ultimately intending to
test a 300 kw prototype commercial plant.
In 1996-97, Fuel Cell Energy Inc. (then Energy Research Corp.) operated a 2 mw
MCFC demonstration plant in Santa Clara, California. The 3,000-hour test
program was cosponsored by the U.S. Department of Energy and the electric
industry research group EPRI. The company hopes to construct units as large as
3 mw. More recently, Southern Co., a large electric utility, announced a
cooperative project with Mercedes Benz US International to construct a 250 kw
MCFC plant at Mercedes's new museum and visitor center in Tuscaloosa,
Alabama.
Large, stationary plants like these hold the promise of reducing the load on
America's stressed transmission grid. Placing power plants nearer consumers, a
concept called distributed generation, should improve transmission reliability
and efficiencyespecially if the plants are clean and quiet. As the electric
industry is deregulated and utilities become more reluctant to invest in new
transmission lines, molten carbonate fuel cells may come to seem an increasingly
attractive option.