Reviews on Fuel Cell Technology for Valuable Chemicals and Energy Co-Generation

Abstract

This paper provides a review of co-generation process in fuel cell type reactor to produce valuable chemical compounds along with electricity. The chemicals and energy co-generation processes have been shown to be a promising alternative to conventional reactors and conventional fuel cells with pure water as a byproduct. This paper reviews researches on chemicals and energy co-generation technologies of three types of promising fuel cell i.e. solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), alkaline fuel cell (AFC), and proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC). In addition, the research studies on applications of SOFCs, AFCs, and PEMFCs with chemical production (i.e. nitric oxide, formaldehyde, sulfur oxide, C2 hydrocarbons, alcohols, syngas and hydrogen peroxide) were also given. Although, it appears that chemicals and energy co-generation processes have potential to succeed in commercial applications, the development of cheaper catalyst materials with longer stability ,and understanding in thermodynamic are still challenging to improve the overall system performance and enable to use in commercial market.