Provided are a low-cost electrochemical device and the like that have both durability and high performance as well as excellent reliability. The electrochemical device includes at least one metal material, and the metal material is made of a Fe—Cr alloy that contains Ti in an amount of more than 0.10 mass % and 1.0 mass % or less.

An individual solid oxide cell (SOC) constructed of a sandwich configuration including in the following order: an in oxygen electrode, a solid oxide electrolyte, a fuel electrode, a fuel manifold, and at least one layer of mesh. In one embodiment, the mesh supports a reforming catalyst resulting in a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) having a reformer embedded therein. The reformer-modified SOFC functions internally to steam reform or partially oxidize a gaseous hydrocarbon, e.g. methane, to a gaseous reformate of hydrogen and carbon monoxide, which is converted in the SOC to water, carbon dioxide, or a mixture thereof, and an electrical current. In another embodiment, an electrical insulator is disposed between the fuel manifold and the mesh resulting in a solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC), which functions to electrolyze water and/or carbon dioxide.

A method of operating a solid oxide cell system comprises generating an electrochemical conversion from one of: (i) water steam H.sub.2O(g); and (ii) a mixture comprising water steam H.sub.2O(g) and carbon dioxide CO.sub.2. A quantity of at least one other substance is added into the one of the water steam H.sub.2O(g) and the mixture comprising water steam H.sub.2O(g) and carbon dioxide CO.sub.2. The at least one other substance comprises a hydrocarbon C.sub.mH.sub.n. The quantity of the at least one other substance is converted into a syngas CO+H.sub.2. An endothermic reforming of the mixed-in hydrocarbons occurs by coupling-in waste heat from the electrochemical conversion. The additional quantity of the at least one substance is added compensate for effects of a degradation of the solid oxide cells of the solid oxide cell system. A total quantity of the hydrogen H.sub.2 generated by the solid oxide cell system is kept constant.

A fuel cell system includes: a fuel cell including: an anode, and a cathode configured to output cathode exhaust, wherein: the fuel cell is configured to generate waste heat; a reformer configured to partially reform a feed gas using the waste heat and output a hydrogen-containing stream; a reformer-electrolyzer-purifier (“REP”) including: an REP anode configured to receive a first portion of the hydrogen-containing stream, and an REP cathode; and an indirect reforming unit disposed on the anode, which is configured to further reform the hydrogen-containing stream and output a fuel turn gas.

Various designs and configurations of and methods of operating fuel cell units, fuel cell systems and combined heat and power systems are provided that permit efficient thermal management of such units and systems to improve their operation.

A carbon dioxide recovery system for collecting carbon dioxide from an exhaust gas generated in a facility including a combustion device includes: a first exhaust gas passage through which the exhaust gas containing carbon dioxide flows; a fuel cell including an anode, a cathode disposed on the first exhaust gas passage so that the exhaust gas from the first exhaust gas passage is supplied to the cathode, and an electrolyte transferring, from the cathode to the anode, a carbonate ion derived from carbon dioxide contained in the exhaust gas from the first exhaust gas passage; and a second exhaust gas passage diverging from the first exhaust gas passage upstream of the cathode so as to bypass the cathode. A part of the exhaust gas is introduced to the second exhaust gas passage.

A fuel cell system includes a reformer, fuel cell stacks, and an exhaust-gas combustor. The reformer has a tubular shape extending in an axial direction and reforms raw fuel into combustion gas. The fuel cell stacks generate electric power from the fuel gas and oxidant gas. The fuel cell stacks are arranged radially outward of the reformer in a circumferential direction to face the reformer in a radial direction. The exhaust-gas combustor burns fuel gas that is not used and included in exhaust gas from the fuel cell stacks. The exhaust-gas combustor is arranged radially inward of the reformer to face the reformer in the radial direction. Each fuel cell stack includes flat plate type cells stacked in the radial direction. This achieves downsizing of the fuel cell system.

A fuel cell stack assembly and method of operating the same are provided. The assembly includes a fuel cell stack column and side baffles disposed on opposing sides of the column. The side baffles and the fuel cell stack may have substantially the same coefficient of thermal expansion at room temperature. The side baffles may have a laminate structure in which one or more channels are formed.

A system and method for power generation and CO.sub.2 sequestration include a fuel cell system configured to generate power using natural gas (NG), a container configured to store liquid natural gas (LNG), and a fluid processor configured to convert LNG received from the container into NG and to convert exhaust output from the fuel cell system to dry ice by transferring heat between and the LNG and the exhaust.

This present disclosure relates generally to a liquid carbon-neutral energy facility (CNEF) operating as a system and the associated apparatus, methods and processes (methodology) for the generation of Carbon-Neutral Hydrogen (CNH) and Carbon-Neutral Electricity (CNE) in a new facility or alternatively in association with an existing greenfield, oil/gas field, or wholly or partially converted oil refinery and the like, and further relating to the generation and storage of energy and/or electricity by means of chemical potential energy operating as a liquid battery using Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC) compositions.