Oxy-combustion of solid fuels in a carbon fuel cell

The full combustion of solid carbonaceous fuels through electrochemical pathways in a carbon fuel cell is investigated. The carbon fuel cell is a novel scheme that utilizes a solid electrolyte layer to both separate the oxidizing stream from the fuel stream and directly produce electricity from the oxidation of carbon, effectively resulting in oxy-combustion of the solid fuel. A model of the carbon fuel cell is developed, validated, and used to calculate the response of a tubular fuel cell with idealized electrode exchange current density parameters. Results indicate that the modeled cell geometry can operate in an optimal regime offering efficiencies near 65% and cell power densities over 1 W/cm(2) on a fuel bed height of 50 mm. (C) 2012 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.