Fuel Cell for Production of Electric Energy with Carbon Dioxide as One of the Cell Reactants

        An electrochemical system; utilizing the sodium in the molten state, and carbon dioxide and oxygen gas mixture as the reactant species; to produce electrical energy has been formulated to predict the standard-state open-circuit voltage as a function of the cell temperature. The cell open-circuit voltage as a function of temperature can be predicted for the non-standard states of the species taking part in the overall cell reaction. In addition, the developed formulation is capable of predicting the following:

The cell operational voltage, electric power density, and efficiency of the cell to deliver electric power density as a function of the cell geometric current density:

For the case of the cell operation as a batch electrochemical reactor, the provided formulation can predict the open-circuit cell voltage as a function of the cell temperature, pressure, the overall reaction extent and the initial composition of the cell cathode-side reactant mixture. The rates of the reactant-species consumption and product-species production can also be predicted at a given cell geometric current density.

Some examples of the computed data presented in the form of plots are given below.