Simulation of Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell with Dry Reforming of Methane (DR-MCFC)

Kyu-Seok Jung, Young-Bae Jun, Jung-Sik Yoon, Sung-Pil Yoon and Chang-Whan Lee ()
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Kyu-Seok Jung: Department of Mechanical Information Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Gongneung-ro 232, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Republic of Korea
Young-Bae Jun: Fuel Cell Research Center, KIST, Hwarangno 14-gil 5, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
Jung-Sik Yoon: Department of Mechanical Information Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Gongneung-ro 232, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Republic of Korea
Sung-Pil Yoon: Fuel Cell Research Center, KIST, Hwarangno 14-gil 5, Seongbuk-gu, Seoul 02792, Republic of Korea
Chang-Whan Lee: Department of Mechanical Information Engineering, Seoul National University of Science and Technology, Gongneung-ro 232, Nowon-gu, Seoul 01811, Republic of Korea

Energies, 2025, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-23

Abstract: This study proposes a novel system integrating a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) with a dry reforming process (DR-MCFC) and develops a corresponding simulation model. In a DR-MCFC, the reacting gases from the dry reforming of methane (DRM) process are fed into a molten carbonate fuel cell. CH 4 and CO 2 were used as the reaction gases, while N 2 was employed as the carrier gas and introduced into the DRM. Following the DRM, the reformed gases were humidified and injected into the anode of the MCFC. A simulation model combining the dry reforming process and the MCFC was developed using COMSOL Multiphysics to evaluate the system’s performance and feasibility. The mole fraction of H 2 after the DRM ranged from 0.181 to 0.214 under five different gas conditions. The average current density of the fuel cell varied between 1321.5 and 1444.9 A·m −2 at a cell voltage of 0.8 V, which was up to 27.07% lower than that of a conventional MCFC operating at 923 K due to the lower hydrogen concentration in the anode. Based on these results, the integration of dry reforming with the MCFC’s operation did not cause any operational issues, demonstrating the feasibility of the proposed DR-MCFC system.

Keywords: dry reforming; molten carbonate fuel cell; computational fluid dynamics; hydrogen reforming (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q Q0 Q4 Q40 Q41 Q42 Q43 Q47 Q48 Q49 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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