The direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) has attracted researcher's attention recently, due to its high conversion efficiency and its abundant fuel, carbon. A DCFC mathematical model has developed in two-dimensional, lab-scale, and considers Boudouard reaction and carbon monoxide (CO) oxidation. The model simulates the CO production by Boudouard reaction and additional electron production by CO oxidation. The Boudouard equilibrium strongly depends on operating temperature and affects the amount of produced CO and consequentially affects the overall fuel cell performance. Two different operating temperatures (973 K, 1023 K) has been calculated to discover the CO production by Boudouard reaction and overall fuel cell performance. Moreover, anode thickness of the cell has been considered to find out the influence of the Boudouard reaction zone in fuel cell performance. It was found that in high temperature operating DCFC modeling, the Boudouard reaction cannot be neglected and has a vital role in the overall fuel cell performance.
Keywords: Direct carbon fuel cell, CFD, Boudouard reaction, Carbon monoxide, Carbon fuel.