Energy Storage Science and Technology ›› 2021, Vol. 10 ›› Issue (6): 1977-1986.doi: 10.19799/j.cnki.2095-4239.2021.0359

• Special issue of hydrogen energy and fuel cell • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Recent progress in direct carbon solid oxide fuel cells: Carbon fuels and reverse Boudouard reaction catalysts

Yuxi WU(), Tingting HAN, Ziheng XIE, Lin LI, Yanwen SONG, Jiacang LIANG, Jinjin ZHANG, Fangyong YU(), Naitao YANG   

  1. School of Chemistry and Chemical Engineering, Shandong University of Technology, Zibo 255049, Shandong, China
  • Received:2021-07-19 Revised:2021-08-02 Online:2021-11-05 Published:2021-11-03

Abstract:

Direct carbon solid oxide fuel cells (DC-SOFCs) are new-type energy conversion devices that directly convert the chemical energy of solid carbon into electricity. They have many advantages like high theoretical efficiency, wide range of fuel sources, low cost, and pollution. As per the working principle of DC-SOFCs, the cell operation is controlled by kinetics process. The effective coupling between the electrochemical oxidation reaction of CO in the anode and the reverse Boudouard reaction in carbon fuel ensures the efficient and stable operation of DC-SOFCs. The relatively slow reverse Boudouard reaction is the determining factor for the electrochemical performance of DC-SOFCs. Therefore, it is an effective way to promote the industrialization process of DC-SOFCs by improving the reverse Boudouard reaction. Much effort has been taken to achieve this goal. Among these, the simplest and effective means are to directly use a high-activity catalyst or the biochar due to their naturally existing catalyst and porous structure. Based on the frontier research in recent years, we review recent advances in the reverse Boudouard reaction catalysts and carbon fuels of DC-SOFCs in this paper. Moreover, the present status, challenges facing, and future directions of DC-SOFCs are also systematically summarized, in order to provide a more valuable reference for the development of high-performance and long-life DC-SOFCs.

Key words: solid oxide fuel cell, direct carbon, carbon fuel, boudouard reaction, biochar

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