Power generation in thermochemical and electrochemical systems - A thermodynamic theory

In fuel cells and other electrochemical systems downgrading or upgrading of resources may also occur. However, we restrict here to the steady-state fuel cells. An approximate (topology-ignoring) analysis shows that, in linear systems, only at most 1/4 of power dissipated in the natural transfer process can be transformed into mechanical or electric power. This indicator may be viewed as a new form of the second law efficiency. The relevant experimental data obtained at the institute of Power Engineering are also presented in this paper.