Development of internal manifold heat exchanger (IMHEX reg sign ) molten carbonate fuel cell stacks Page: 3 of 25
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This paper will review the recent developments the MCFC scale-up and
manufacture work of MCP, and the research and development efforts of IGT which
support those efforts.
Background
History
IGT has had a long and productive history in the development of MCFC
components, cells and stacks. The origin of this effort began in the early
1960's when the gas industry and IGT management envisioned a large market for
dispersed electrical generators powered by a clean fuel, natural gas, already
widely distributed by a national pipeline network. Such dispersed generators
would be neighbor-friendly, emit essentially zero pollution, have no Carnot-
cycle efficiency limitations, and would essentially eliminate the usual
transmission and distribution costs incurred by an electric utility. Today,
we realize how prophetic their vision was. Utilities and prospective end
users are showing increased interest in testing fuel cells. They are no
longer a laboratory curiosity. All three generic fuel cell types are finding
their respective unique place in the electrical energy generation mix today.
That is, no one fuel cell type can possibly serve the very broad range of
commercial, industrial, and utility applications. IGT is unique in that it
has been intimately involved in the development of all three of the most
advanced fuel cell types: PAFC, MCFC, and SOFC. The objective and purpose of
our research has been, and continues to be, aimed at providing low-cost
service to the utility customer. Based upon comprehensive technical and
business analyses, IGT has concluded that the MCFC system offers superior
performance at lower cost than the other fuel cell systems. The MCFC is also
ideally suited for dispersed power generation and base load plants.
Our MCFC research and development efforts have has been multi-
disciplinary and cover virtually every material, component and design con-
figuration used to advance development. We refer to our approach as the IGT
Quality Circle as shown in Figure 1. This diagram illustrates how technical
and economic aspects are taken into account early in the developmental pro-
cess. Technical and economic trade-offs are evaluated, taking into consider-
ation other issues which will impact design and performance goals. This
approach Ias.instrumegtal in improving performance, and scaling up cell sizes
from 3 cm to 1000 cm (Figure 2) using cost-effective cell materials and
fabrication processes. Commercial size (10 ft ) cell components are being
prepared for stack testing later this year. This stack will incorporate
hardware designs that have been successfully demonstrated at the 1 ft level
containing as many as 70 cells. The 70-cell stack test was the world's
tallest MCFC stack and it fully demonstrated the "stackability" of the IMHEX@
MCFC stack.
Stack Development
When single cells are scaled-up in size and stacked atop each other, the
three major concerns (Table 1) become gas manifolding, gas distribution, and
carbonate management. Evolution of the MCFC technology and system was led by
IGT. It involved the development of small single cells which resulted in 1 ft2
stacks. Throughout this development process, many cell design variations were
evaluated. The same is true for stacks which also involved design, assembly2
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Marianowski, L. G.; Ong, E. T.; Petri, R. J. & Remick, R. J. Development of internal manifold heat exchanger (IMHEX reg sign ) molten carbonate fuel cell stacks, article, January 1, 1991; Chicago, Illinois. (https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc1057244/m1/3/: accessed April 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, UNT Digital Library, https://digital.library.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Government Documents Department.