THE STATE OF MCFC TECHNOLOGY DEVELOPMENT

Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) technology development has become one of the highest priority R & D projects in the field of energy because of its outstanding energy conversion efficiency from various hydrocarbon fuels and coal derived gas to electricity. This paper presents the state-of-the-art of MCFC technology in Mitsubishi Electric Corporation (MELCO) and discusses the technical problems having been encountered and the countermeasures to overcome or to optimize them. The fundamental issues are corrosion, creep and compatibility of the cell component materials. This paper presents an effective means of minimizing the anode creep, and optimizing the thickness of the anode, the cathode and the matrix.