The changes in the surface phase and the morphology of nickel–yttria stabilized zirconia (YSZ) cermet anodes for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) upon exposure to a fuel containing 100 parts per million (ppm)-level hydrogen sulfide (H2S) at elevated temperatures were investigated using in situ Raman microspectroscopy as well as ex situ techniques such as X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron...

Utilizing heat-generated cooling in vehicles offers the opportunity to reduce the amount of fuel used today for air conditioning. The U.S. uses approximately 7.1 billion gallons of gasoline each year for air conditioning in vehicles. By using waste heat as the primary energy source for heat-generated cooling, we have the potential to reduce the national fuel use by 7.1 billion gallons. An engin...

Owing to their high efficiency and energy density, miniaturized fuel cells are an attractive alternative to batteries in the mW-W power generation market for portable consumer and military electronic devices [cf. 1-3]. Hydrogen is being actively considered as a fuel for power generation. It can be supplied either by storage devices or its in-situ generation using reformers. However, safety and ...

Water loss and the coincident increase in membrane resistance to proton conduction are significant barriers to high performance operation of traditional proton exchange membrane fuel cells at elevated temperatures where the relative humidity may be reduced. We report here approaches to the development of high temperature membranes for proton exchange membrane fuel cells; composite perfluorinate...

Thermal pretreatment or torrefaction of biomass under anoxic condition can produce an energy dense and consistent quality solid biomass fuel for combustion and co-firing applications. This paper investigates the fuel characteristics and grindability of pine chips and logging residues torrefied at temperatures ranging from 225 °C to 300 °C and 30 min residence time. Grinding performance of torre...

Fuel cells offer the possibility of zero-emissions electricity generation and increased energy security. We review here the current status of solid oxide (SOFC) and polymer electrolyte membrane (PEMFC) fuel cells. Such solid electrolyte systems obviate the need to contain corrosive liquids and are thus preferred by many developers over alkali, phosphoric acid or molten carbonate fuel cells. Dra...

Burning fuels in an O2/H2O atmosphere is regarded as the next generation of oxy-fuel combustion for CO2 capture and storage (CCS). By combining oxy-fuel combustion and biomass utilization technology, CO2 emissions could be further reduced. Therefore, this work focuses on investigating the combustion characteristics of single particles from bituminous coal (BC) and pine sawdust (PS) in O2/N2, O2...

To increase the power density and maximum allowable fuel burnup in light water reactors, new fuel rod designs are investigated. Such fuel is desirable for improving the economic performance light water reactors loaded with transuranic-bearing fuel for transmutation, as well as those using UO2 fuel. A proposal for using silicon carbide duplex as fuel cladding is investigated. The cladding consis...

Torrefaction is a pretreatment method for upgrading biomass as solid fuels. To provide flexible operations for effectively upgrading biomass at lower costs, the aim of this study was to investigate the properties of oil palm fiber and eucalyptus pretreated in nitrogen and air atmospheres at temperatures of 250-350°C for 1h. Based on energy and solid yield and introducing an energy-mass co-benef...

The focus of this study is the measurement and understanding of the sulfur poisoning phenomena of Ni/gadolinium-doped ceria (CGO) based solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). Cells with Ni/CGO10 and NiCu5/CGO40 anodes were characterized by using impedance spectroscopy at different temperatures and H2 /H2 O fuel ratios. The short-term sulfur poisoning behavior was investigated systematically at temperat...