Killing two birds with one stone: Can fuel cells operate on a high energy density fuel derived from coal?

世界各地都有大量的煤炭，特别是在一些发展中国家和新兴国家（如中国，印度等）。然而，煤的燃烧产生大量的二氧化碳，并产生大量的污染。乙炔很容易由电石制成，而电石又很容易由煤（焦炭）和碳酸钙制成。虽然乙炔不能干净地燃烧，但文献中有重要证据表明，它在含水电解质中以非常干净的方式电化学消耗，因此可能是用作聚合物电解质燃料电池中的燃料的理想候选者。对于固体氧化物燃料电池来说，乙炔可能不是一种好的燃料，并且裂解的可能性以及随后的固体碳沉积很高。对于聚合物电解质燃料电池，情况并非如此，对于聚合物电解质燃料电池，大量水的存在排除了裂解反应。因此，更清洁地使用煤炭储量的可行方法是将煤炭转化为电石（这可以使用可再生能源完成），然后将电石运输到需要能源的地方。然后，乙炔可以从电石中释放出来，并用于使用乙炔作为燃料的燃料电池中。有利地，电石是能量密度非常高的燃料（它比汽油多储存50%的能量），但非常安全-它不容易燃烧，因此它是理想的储存和运输。由于电石的生产方式，有可能阻止多达60%的乙炔和电石的好处可以概括如下：a）电石燃料由煤（焦炭）和CaCO 3以非常简单的工艺制成。有前景，在整个循环中产生的60%的二氧化碳被封存;B）非常高的体积能量密度/从固体CaC 2中释放的乙炔的能量含量比汽油高50%，比甲醇高三倍;c）电石容易且安全地运输和使用。乙炔仅根据需要产生，因此与氢气等相比，气体的意外排放显着减少;d）与便携式系统考虑的其他燃料相比，清洁的电化学氧化为CO2并且交叉非常低（参见DMFC中的甲醇）; e）纯乙炔具有非常低的毒性，并且在过去被用作麻醉气体;因此，电石及其产生的乙炔燃料将是便携式燃料电池系统的理想燃料/即作为便携式电子设备中DMFC的替代品。从长远来看，这种燃料电池也可以考虑用于更大规模的移动的应用（汽车），甚至固定系统，例如用于房屋的热电联产系统。本项目的目标是在这一过程中迈出第一步，并评估乙炔是否可以用于燃料电池。以前没有人研究过这个

There are large quantities of coal available throughout the world, especially in a number of developing and emerging countries (e.g. China, India etc). However, the burning of coal produces a large amount of CO2, and produces significant amounts of pollution. Acetylene is easily made from calcium carbide which in turn is easily made from coal (coke) and calcium carbonate. Although acetylene does not burn cleanly, there is significant evidence in the literature that it is electochemically consumed in a very clean fashion in aqueous electrolytes and hence may be an ideal candidate for use as a fuel in a polymer electrolyte fuel cell. Acetylene would probably not be as good a fuel for solid oxide fuel cells, and the likelyhood of cracking, and subsequent deposition of solid carbon is high. This is not the case for polymer electrolyte fuel cells for which the presence of copious amoutns of water precludes the cracking reaction. Therefore, a viable approach to more cleanly use the coal reserves would be to convert that coal into calcium carbide (this can be done using renewable energy sources) and then transporting the calcium carbide to where the energy is required. The acetylene could then be liberated from the calcium carbide, and utilised in a fuel cell utilising acetylene as a fuel. Advantageously, calcium carbide is a very energy dense fuel (it stores 50% more energy than petrol) but is very safe - it does not burn easily at all, thus it is ideal for storage and transport.Because of the way in which calcium carbide is produced, it may be possible to prevent as much as 60% of the CO2 that would normally be produced from burning the coal entering the environment.The benefits of acetylene and calcium carbide may be summarised as follows: a) The calcium carbide fuel is made from coal (coke), and CaCO3 in a very simple process. There is the prospect for sequestration of 60% of the carbon dioxide produced within the complete cycle;b) Very high volumetric energy density / the energy content of the acetylene liberated from solid CaC2 is 50% greater than petrol, and three times greater than methanol;c) Calcium carbide is easy and safe to transport and use. Acetylene would only be produced as needed, so accidental discharge of gas is significantly reduced compared to e.g. hydrogen;d) Clean electrochemical oxidation to CO2 and very low crossover compared to other fuels considered for portable systems (c.f. methanol in the DMFC);e) Pure acetylene has very low toxicity, and in the past has been used as an anaesthetic gas;Hence, calcium carbide, and the acetylene fuel that it produces would be an ideal fuel for portable fuel cell systems / i.e. as a replacement for the DMFC in portable electronic equipment. Over the longer term, such fuel cells may also be considered for larger scale mobile applications (automobiles) and even stationary systems, e.g. Combined Heat and Power systems for houses.The goal of this project is to take the first step in this process and assess whether acetylene can be utilised in a fuel cell. This has not been looked at before