纤维板做燃料电池的材料.docVIP

Waste fibreboard produced by the furniture industry can be converted into electricity without the need to burn it, chemists have shown. Such microgeneration techniques could help cut factories consumption of power from external sources, as well as making emissions from power generation easier to store. Medium-density fibreboard (MDF) has been mass-produced for the building trade for 30 years. The material is popular in the making of furniture because it is cheap, flexible, and doesnt split in the way that wood does. John Irvine at the University of St Andrews in the UK and his team have now shown that MDF can, with minimal treatment, feed an electricity-generating direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC). These cells can be as much as twice as efficient as combustion engines at extracting energy from a fuel, because they dont waste heat. Although DCFCs do release carbon dioxide, just as burning carbon fuels does, the gas is released in a pure form – not mixed with nitrogen and other waste products as are emissions from burning. That makes it relatively easy to capture, preventing release into the atmosphere. Wood stock Irvines team first treat shredded MDF with 500 oC heat in a nitrogen atmosphere to drive off water and volatile gases. This is a cost-effective process that leaves the material in an energy-dense and lighter form that is easier to move to where its needed, says Irvine. The treated MDF is then powdered and mixed with lithium and potassium carbonates, which are the electrolytes in the fuel cell. At temperatures between 500 and 800 oC, these act as chaperones that encourage the carbon in the MDF to combine with the oxygen flowing into the cell to produce carbon dioxide and free up the electrons that provide electrical current. The finished cell has a power density of around 100 milliwatts per square centimetre at a current density of 200 milliamps per square centimetre, meaning a square cell 10 centimetres on each side could generate 2 volts at a current of 20 amp