Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) is a second-generation fuel cell because its electrolyte is a molten alkali metal carbonate mixture present in a lithium metaaluminate (LiAlO2) ceramic base film. Got its name. Molten carbonate fuel cells are fuel cells composed of porous ceramic cathodes, porous ceramic electrolyte separators, porous metal anodes, and metal plates. The electrolyte is a molten carbonate, usually a binary mixture of lithium and potassium, or lithium and sodium metal carbonates. The schematic diagram of the reaction principle is as follows:

　　Cathode: O2 + 2CO2 + 4e - →2CO32-

　　Anode: 2H2 + 2CO32- → 2CO2 + 2H2O + 4e–

　　Total reaction: O2 + 2H2 → 2H2O

　　In this reaction, e- is released from the fuel electrode and returns to the air electrode through the external circuit. The uninterrupted flow of e- in the external circuit realizes the fuel cell power generation. In addition, the biggest characteristic of MCFC is that there must be CO32- ions that contribute to the reaction, so the supplied oxidant gas must contain carbonic acid gas. In addition, a method has been developed in which a catalyst is filled inside the battery to modify CH4, which is the main component of natural gas, inside the battery, and H2 is directly generated inside the battery. When the fuel is coal gas, its main component CO reacts with H2O to generate H2. Therefore, CO can be equivalently utilized as fuel. In order to obtain greater output, the partitions are usually made of Ni and stainless steel.

　　Molten carbonate fuel cell is a high-temperature battery (600~700℃) with high efficiency (higher than 40%), low noise, no pollution, diversified fuels (hydrogen, coal gas, natural gas and biofuels, etc.), waste heat With many advantages such as high utilization value and cheap battery construction materials, it is the green power station of the future.

　　In the early 1950s, molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFC) attracted worldwide attention due to their prospects as large-scale civilian power generation devices. After that, MCFC developed very fast. It has been greatly improved in battery materials, processes, structures, etc., but the working life of the battery is not ideal. By the 1980s, it had been used as a second-generation fuel cell and became the main research target for realizing megawatt-level commercial fuel cell power stations, and the development speed was accelerating. At present, the main developers of MCFC are concentrated in the United States, Japan, Western Europe and other countries. It is now basically close to commercial production, but it has not been widely used due to its high preparation cost.

　　There are not many units conducting MCFC research in China. Harbin Power Supply Equipment Research Institute studied MCFC in the late 1980s, but stopped research in this area in the early 1990s. In 1993, the Dalian Institute of Chemical Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, began research on MCFC with funding from the Chinese Academy of Sciences. They made their own LiAlO2 micropowder, prepared separators for MCFC by cold rolling and belt casting, and assembled single cells. Their performance has been reached the international level in the early 1980s. In the early 1990s, the Changchun Institute of Applied Chemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences also began research on MCFC, and made great progress in the preparation methods of LiAlO2 micropowder and the use of intermetallic compounds as anode materials for MCFC. In the early 1990s, the University of Science and Technology Beijing carried out research on MCFC with funding from the National Natural Science Foundation. It mainly studied the interaction between electrode materials and electrolytes, and proposed using intermetallic compounds as electrode materials to reduce its dissolution. The Shanghai Institute of Metallurgy, Chinese Academy of Sciences, has also begun research on MCFC in recent years, focusing mainly on the interaction between nickel oxide cathodes and molten salts. In 1995, Shanghai Jiao Tong University cooperated with Changqing Oilfield to start MCFC research, with the goal of jointly developing 5kW to 10kW MCFC. During the "Eighth Five-Year Plan" period, the Institute of Electrical Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences inspected the system engineering of foreign MCFC demonstration power stations and investigated the operation of the power stations. It has now carried out research and development of key technologies for MCFC power station system engineering.

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