High performance solid oxide fuel cell operating on dry gasified coal

A fluidized coal bed-solid oxide fuel cell (FB-SOFC) arrangement is employed for efficient conversion of dry gasified coal into electricity at 850 °C. It consists of an anode-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell of 24 cm2 active area coupled to a Boudouard gasifier. A minimally fluidized bed of low sulfur (0.15 wt%) Alaska coal is gasified at 930 °C by flowing CO2 to generate CO. The resulting CO fuel is oxidized at the Ni/YSZ cermet anode. The highest cell power density achieved is 0.45 W cm−2 at 0.64 V with 35.7% electrical conversion efficiency based on CO utilization. This power density is the highest reported in the literature for such systems and corresponds to a total power generation of 10.8 W by this cell. Similarly, 48.4% is the highest conversion efficiency measured at a power density of 0.30 W cm−2 and 0.7 V. The open circuit voltages are in good agreement with values expected based on thermodynamic data.