Pretreated mesocarp fibre biochars as carbon fuel for direct carbon fuel cells
By Jafri, N.; Wong, W. Y.; Yoon, L. W.; Cheah, K. H.
Published in International Journal of Hydrogen Energy
2020
Abstract
This work focuses on the effect of acid and alkali pretreatment of palm mesocarp fibre (PMF) on its fuel performance in a direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). PMF is pretreated with acid and alkali in the range of 0.1 M–4 M and followed by pyrolysis to produce biochar fuel. Performance is evaluated in the DCFC at 750 °C, 800 °C, and 850 °C. This work reveals that 2.0 M HCl treated PMF biochar gives the lowest ash value (0.1 wt%) and the highest O/C ratio among all tested biochars. The acid pretreatment contributes to enhanced electrochemical reactivity of the PMF biochar, which gives a peak power density output of 11.8 mW cm−2 at 850 °C in the DCFC. This obtained peak power density is higher than the power density of untreated biochar, recorded at a value of 0.70 mW cm−2. The results indicate that reduced ash, the existence of oxygen functional groups, and porous fibrous structure have increased the electro-oxidation active sites of the pretreated biochar fuel in DCFC.