Expression of MCFC's cathode reaction resistance based on reaction mechanism

Expression for the performance of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) is required to estimate the efficiency of an MCFC power plant or to simulate the inner state of a stack. The expression should have good accurate degree of representing the performance under various operating conditions. However, the performance estimated by previous expressions have been found to be deviated from those measured under low oxygen and carbon dioxide partial pressures. To solve this problem, we carried out a systematic analysis of the performance of many bench-scale cells operated under various cathode gas conditions and investigated the expression of cathode polarization according to oxygen reduction mechanism in molten carbonate. As a result, it has been clarified that the behavior of cathode polarization under various conditions is well estimated from the dependence of mixed diffusion of superoxide ibn O-2(.) and CO2 in the melt on the assumed partial pressure.