Cleaner, more-efficient electricity from carbon fuels
Nature Communications
2011년6월22일
A new anode for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) that could reduce the emissions and improve the efficiency of conversion of readily available fuels to electricity is described in Nature Communications this week.
SOFCs powered by gasifed coal are twice as efficient as current coal-fired power plants and can potentially reduce CO2 emissions by 50%. However, existing anodes used in SOFCs are prone to a build up of carbon (due to a process called coking), which reduces their performance. Meilin Liu and colleagues report a new barium oxide/nickel anode that efficiently oxidises fuel with minimum carbon build-up. Coking is prevented as the anode absorbs water that promotes carbon removal, making it possible to use carbon-containing fuels at relatively low temperatures.
Unlike previous efforts to make new anodes, which have identified materials that are either too expensive or incompatible owing to high complexity, the barium oxide/nickel anode is simple and contains no expensive rare elements.
doi: 10.1038/ncomms1359
리서치 하이라이트
-
3월4일
Environment: Reservoirs account for more than half of water storage variabilityNature
-
3월2일
Evolution: Neanderthals may have heard just like usNature Ecology & Evolution
-
3월2일
Geoscience: Earth’s atmosphere may return to low-levels of oxygen in one billion yearsNature Geoscience
-
2월26일
Environment: Shifting from small to medium plastic bottles could reduce PET wasteScientific Reports
-
2월24일
Environment: European forests more vulnerable to multiple threats as climate warmsNature Communications
-
2월11일
Environment: Global CFC-11 emissions in declineNature
