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The alkaline fuel cell (AFC), also known as the Bacon fuel cell after its British inventor, Francis Thomas Bacon, is one of the most developed fuel cell technologies. Alkaline fuel cells consume hydrogen and pure oxygen, to produce potable water, heat, and electricity. They are among the most efficient fuel cells, having the potential to reach 70%.
The planar fuel cell design geometry is the typical sandwich type geometry employed by most types of fuel cells, where the electrolyte is sandwiched in between the electrodes. SOFCs can also be made in tubular geometries where either air or fuel is passed through the inside of the tube and the other gas is passed along the outside of the tube.
The alkaline fuel cell used by NASA in 1960s for Apollo and Space Shuttle program generated electricity at nearly 70% efficiency using aqueous solution of KOH as an electrolyte. In that situation, CO 2 coming in through oxidant air stream and generated as by product from oxidation of methanol, if methanol is the fuel, reacts with electrolyte ...
The energy efficiency of a system or device that converts energy is measured by the ratio of the amount of useful energy put out by the system ("output energy") to the total amount of energy that is put in ("input energy") or by useful output energy as a percentage of the total input energy. In the case of fuel cells, useful output energy is ...
The latter can produce electricity via a fuel cell. The oxidation in the fuel cell generates heat, which can support space or water heating. [3] A higher-temperature process could support industrial applications. It operates at over 200 °C, reacting aluminium with steam to generate aluminium oxide, hydrogen and additional heat. [3] The ionic ...
The most common electrolyte, again similar to solid-oxide fuel cells, is a dense ionic conductor consisting of ZrO 2 doped with 8 mol-% Y 2 O 3 (also known as YSZ, ytrium-stabilized zirconia). Zirconium dioxide is used because of its high strength, high melting temperature (approximately 2700 °C) and excellent corrosion resistance.
In 1894 Ostwald explained the energy conversion in a fuel cell and stressed that its efficiency was not limited by thermodynamics. [9] Ostwald, together with Jacobus Henricus van 't Hoff, and Svante Arrhenius, was a founding father of electrochemistry and chemical ionic theory, and received a Nobel prize in chemistry in 1909.
The cell produces energy by combining carbon and oxygen, which releases carbon dioxide as a by-product. [3] It is also called coal fuel cells (CFCs), carbon-air fuel cells (CAFCs), direct carbon/coal fuel cells (DCFCs), and DC-SOFC. The total reaction of the cell is C + O 2 → CO 2. The process in half cell notation: Anode: C + 2O 2− → CO ...