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[June 2003]
Project Pairs Coal with Fuel Cells
Engineers at Ohio University (Athens, OH, USA) are leading one of the first comprehensive efforts to examine how fuel cell technology could pave the way for cleaner coal-fired power plants. Supported by a US$4 million US Department of Energy grant, the project aims to find ways to use coal - the environmentally dirtiest but most abundant fossil fuel - to harness high efficiency fuel cells.
"We need to find ways to make coal work for us," said David Bayless, an Associate Professor of Mechanical Engineering in the Russ College of Engineering and Technology and Director of the Ohio Coal Research Center. "After all, coal reserves are expected to last for at least the next 250 years, compared to 30 years for natural gas."
Bayless and other researchers propose teaming fuel cells with coal-derived gas, or syngas. Rather than burning coal directly, coal gasification mixes coal with steam, air and oxygen under high temperatures and pressures, resulting in chemical reactions that form a gaseous mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. When introduced to fuel cells, this gas is transformed into water, producing electricity and heat in the process.
However, because syngas contains hazardous contaminants such as sulphur and mercury that can damage fuel cells, Ohio University researchers need to figure out how to effectively integrate syngas with fuel cells. During the next few years, they plan to conduct experiments to see how various syngas contaminants affect fuel cells by measuring decreases or changes in fuel cell voltage, temperature, pressure and other performance-related factors.
Bayless is focusing on integrating syngas with planar solid oxide fuel cells, which are tile-shaped cells made of ceramic. However, he sees coal eventually becoming an energy source for a variety of high-tech fuel cells being developed to power cars, laptops and homes.
ENDS