Performance of molten carbonate fuel cell with Li-Na and Li-K carbonate electrolyte at extremely high-temperature condition

The cell performance of Li-K and Li-Na carbonate electrolytes was compared using a coin type molten carbonate fuel cell operated at the extremely high temperature of 800 °C. It was an acceleration test to compare the performance in a short period. Electrochemical techniques such as steady state polarization (SSP) and impedance from the Nyquist plot were used in the cell performance analysis. The initial performance of both electrolytes was similar, but the performance of the Li-K electrolyte decreased drastically after 180 h. The results from SSP showed that the total overpotential of the Li-K electrolyte increased sharply, whereas that of Li-Na electrolyte had a continuous performance up to 340 h. The impedance analysis showed that the internal resistance of the Li-K electrolyte increased with time, but that of Li-Na electrolyte remained unchanged. The remaining amount of each electrolyte was determined, and it was observed that the electrolyte loss rate of the Li-K electrolyte was 0.0072 g/hr, and that of Li-Na electrolyte was 0.0028 g/hr. This implies that the electrolyte depletion rate of the Li-K electrolyte is about 1.5 times faster than that of the Li-Na electrolyte at the high-temperature condition. Thus, the cell of a Li-Na electrolyte containing MCFC according to the consumption of electrolyte is expected to be longer than one that uses Li-K electrolyte.