Purified high-sulfur coal as a fuel for direct carbon solid oxide fuel cells

© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The use of low-rank coal in a clean and efficient manner is a major challenge facing the current coal technology. A high-sulfur coal with 4.5 wt% sulfur is chosen to examine the compatibility of the pristine coal and the purified contrast with a solid oxide fuel...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Jiao, Y., Xue, X., An, W., Julião, P., Wang, Wei, Yang, G., Zhou, W., Li, S.
Format: Journal Article
Published: John Wiley & Sons Ltd. 2018
Online Access:http://purl.org/au-research/grants/arc/DP150104365
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66465
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Summary:© 2018 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. The use of low-rank coal in a clean and efficient manner is a major challenge facing the current coal technology. A high-sulfur coal with 4.5 wt% sulfur is chosen to examine the compatibility of the pristine coal and the purified contrast with a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with nickel cermet anodes. Desulfurization of the pristine coal is performed by molten caustic leaching method with a removal ratio of 80%. Analyses of the physicochemical properties of coal samples indicate that the purified coal has a more favorable structure and higher Boudouard reactivity, which is suitable as a fuel for fuel cells. The assessment of electrochemical performance reveals that the purification treatment not only makes the peak power density of SOFCs improve from 115 to 221 mW cm -2 at 900°C but also extends their durability from 1.7 to 11.2 hours under a current density of 50 mA cm -2 at 850°C with a fuel availability increasing from 6.25% to 40%. The postmortem analyses show that far less deposited carbon and nickel sulfide are observed on the anode surface. The fuel-based investigation reveals that the purified coal is a promising fuel for direct carbon fuel cells.