Accelerated test for MCFC button cells: First findings

One of the biggest unresolved issues for fuel cells is to define a procedure to accelerate degradation phenomena occurring inside the cells in such a way as to obtain meaningful long-term results and information about the behaviour of the system in a shorter time. To define an accelerated testing protocol, a lot of different parameters have to be considered, all of them strongly dependent each other and concurring to determine the end of life of a fuel cell. A preliminary literature review of the majors degradation phenomena was assessed to better understand the correlation of degradation mechanisms, occurring inside MCFCs, cell components and operative parameters, pointing out that electrolyte loss is the only degradation mechanism connected with all the operative parameters. The aim of this work is to carry out a deep study of the electrolyte evaporation in a Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) and by this mechanism to evaluate the possibilities for inducing controlled acceleration of superimposed degradation phenomena, for this reason at the end of this experimental campaign, the effect of sulphur dioxide poisoning was evaluated, making possible a direct comparison between degradation coming from electrolyte loss and degradation coming from sulphur dioxide poisoning. The first interpretation of long term tests carried out with MCFC button cells (3 cm²) will be presented in the attempt to better understand how evaporation loss takes place and could be accelerated.