Metc 1364

In MCFCs, the reaction of hydrogen and

carbonate ions releases electrons at the anode/

electrolyte interface. Water, carbon dioxide, and

heat are released by the anode reaction. The

electrochemical reaction of oxygen, carbon

dioxide, plus two electrons creates carbonate

ions at the cathode/electrolyte interface. MCFC

stack designs incorporate either internal or

external manifolding. Internal and external

reforming are being considered in several commercialization

concepts. All MCFC concepts

employ flat cell components in the cell package

(i.e., anode, matrix to hold carbonate, cathode,

current collector, and separator plate).

Fuel cells have many advantages that make

them the ideal power system of the future,

including environmental friendliness because the

nitrogen oxide, sulfur oxide, carbon monoxide,

and other pollutant exhaust products are insignificant.

As attempts are made to improve the

efficiency of future gas turbines, ever higher

temperatures will be necessary to compete with

fuel cell efficiency. Fuel cells produce high

efficiency through chemical rather than thermal

conversion and are controlled by Gibbs' Free

Energy rather than high temperature operation.

Thus, ultimately, if we are ever to achieve

70-percent power efficiency, we must integrate

the fuel cell and gas turbine systems.

Fuel cells have other operational benefits.

They operate efficiently at small size and even

at partial loads. Because of this, fuel cells are

ideal for distributed power generation. Fuel cell

systems produce power with smaller footprints

and hence lower land and power costs. These

benefits in turn result in the potential to

completely eliminate high voltage lines, reducing

health concerns. In turn, a society can be

created with fuel cells where the industrial complexes

are cleaner and where even residential

power services are available.

There is another special advantage to fuel

cells, namely, low water utilization. This makes

fuel...