My watch list
my.chemeurope.com  
Login  

Phosphoric acid fuel cell



  Phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFC) are a type of fuel cell that uses liquid phosphoric acid as an electrolyte. The electrodes are made of carbon paper coated with a finely-dispersed platinum catalyst, which make them expensive to manufacture. They are not affected by carbon monoxide impurities in the hydrogen stream. Phosphoric acid solidifies at a temperature of 40 °C, making startup difficult and restraining PAFCs to continuous operation.

However, at an operating range of 150 to 200 °C, the expelled water can be converted to steam for air and water heating. Phosphoric acid fuel cells have been used for stationary applications with a combined heat and power efficiency of about 80%, and they continue to dominate the on-site stationary fuel cell market.

The primary manufacturer of PAFC technology is UTC Power (also known as UTC Fuel Cells), a unit of United Technologies (NYSE: UTX). As of 2005, there were close to 300 "PureCell" 200 kW units by UTC Power in service globally.

See also


Fuel Cells
Types:  AFC | BE | DBFC | DEFC | DMFC | EGFC | FAFC | MCFC | MFC | MHFC | PAFC | PCFC | PEC | PEMFC | RFC | rfc | RMFC | SOFC | ZFC 
Other: Hydrogen Economy | Hydrogen storage | Hydrogen station | Hydrogen Vehicles
 
This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Phosphoric_acid_fuel_cell". A list of authors is available in Wikipedia.
Your browser is not current. Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 does not support some functions on Chemie.DE