Carbon as a fuel for efficient electricity generation in carbon solid oxide fuel cells

In this paper, the impact of the physicochemical properties of carbonaceous solid fuels on the performance of a direct carbon solid oxide fuel cell (DC-SOFC) was investigated. High-purity synthetic carbon powders such as carbon black N-220 and Carbo Medicinalis FP5 were chosen for analytical and electrochemical investigations in a DC-SOFC. The research focussed on choosing an optimised, cost-effective, high-purity carbon powder which could be applied as a solid reference fuel for all tests performed on a single DC-SOFC cell as well as on DC-SOFC stack constructions. Most of the electrochemical investigations described in this paper were performed using square DC-SOFCs with dimensions of 5 x 5 cm. The relationship between structure, physicochemical properties, and electrochemical reactivity in a DC-SOFC was analysed.