Experimental evaluation of a solid oxide fuel cell system exposed to inclinations and accelerations by ship motions

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems have the potential to reduce emissions from seagoing vessels. However, it is unknown whether ship motions influence the system's operation. In this research, a 1.5 kW SOFC module is operated on an inclination platform that emulates ship motions, to evaluate the influence of static and dynamic inclinations...

Ammonia - from pollutant to power: Removal and recovery of total ammoniacal nitrogen from residual waters for electricity generation

Ammonia (NH3) is one of world’s most-produced chemicals and is mostly used as a raw resource for fertilisers. From the used NH3-based fertilisers, almost half of the NH3 ends up in receiving water bodies, leading to eutrophication, eventually resulting in species diversity loss in the aquatic environment. To minimise environmental damage, total...

The AmmoniaDrive Research Project

Several news items and short movies have appeared online recently, announcing that the AmmoniaDrive Consortium was awarded a prestigious NWO Perspectief grant. But what is the AmmoniaDrive research project? How does it contribute to combatting shipping-induced climate change? Who are in the consortium and why? And finally, what research...

Fuelling a solid oxide fuel cell with ammonia recovered from water by vacuum membrane stripping

Gaseous ammonia (NH3) recovered from residual waters may be used as a fuel in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to generate electricity without emission of undesirable oxidised nitrogen species. NH3 can be directly recovered from water as a gas by vacuum membrane stripping (VMS), which also results in the evaporation of water (H2O), leading to the...

A solid oxide fuel cell fuelled by methane recovered from groundwater

This study investigates the feasibility of electricity production in a solid oxide fuel cell using methane recovered from groundwater as the fuel. Methane must be removed from groundwater for the production of drinking water to, amongst others, avoid bacterial regrowth. Instead of releasing methane to the atmosphere or converting it to carbon...

Thermodynamic analysis of an improved integrated biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell micro combined heat and power system

Limited overall efficiency and excessive complexity can hinder the competitiveness of biomass gasifier solid oxide fuel cell micro combined heat and power systems. To overcome these problems, hydrocarbons direct internal reforming is analysed as a strategy to increase efficiency and reduce system complexity. To the same end, two biosyngas...

A comparison of steam reforming concepts in solid oxide fuel cell systems

Various concepts have been proposed to use hydrocarbon fuels in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems. A combination of either allothermal or adiabatic pre-reforming and water recirculation (WR) or anode off-gas recirculation (AOGR) is commonly used to convert the fuel into a hydrogen rich mixture before it is electrochemically oxidised in the...

Solutions for improving the energy efficiency in wastewater treatment plants based on solid oxide fuel cell technology

Polygeneration configurations for small power generation systems offer significant potential for energy saving and reducing carbon emissions in wastewater treatment facilities. In this work, a biogas-fed solid oxide fuel cell system operating in a wastewater treatment plant (located in Turin, Italy) is analyzed in terms of its potential...