Feasibility of Pine Bark Pellets and Their Pyrolyzed Biochar Pellets as Fuel Sources in Molten Hydroxide Direct Carbon Fuel Cells
Wenbin Hao, Peng Luo, Zhiqiang Wu, Guoxing Sun, Yongli Mi
Abstract
A comprehensive study was conducted on the fuel feasibility of forest-based biomass–pine bark pellets (BPs) and their pyrolyzed biochar pellets (BP800) using molten hydroxide direct carbon fuel cells (MH-DCFCs). The polarization behaviors of MH-DCFCs fed with BP and BP800 were Ohmic resistance-controlled in the low current density region, while mass-transfer-controlled polarization behavior was dominant in the high current density region. The achieved maximum current density and peak power density were 74.5 mA/cm2 and 30.8 mW/cm2 at 450 °C for BP and 110.4 mA/cm2 and 45.0 mW/cm2 at 450 °C for BP800, respectively. The fuel availability test revealed that the batch lives of BP- and BP800-fed cells are ∼19.0 and ∼15.7 h and the energy conversion efficiencies are 39.0 and 45.9%, respectively, indicating that the fuel performance of BP is comparable with that of the pyrolyzed biochar (BP800) thereof with regard to energy conversion efficiency and cell stability. The characterizations suggest that this can be largely attributed to the inherent ash components in BP and the water formation during the BP-fed cells’ operation, which can suppress the carbonate ion accumulation at the anode. In conclusion, direct utilization of raw BP as the fuel is feasible to feed MH-DCFCs, and the thermal pretreatment might not be required for biomass to run MH-DCFCs.