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Specialty Chemistry Forums => Chemical Engineering Forum => Topic started by: riboswitch on January 09, 2018, 04:19:21 AM

Title: Fuel cell: basic questions about potential losses
Post by: riboswitch on January 09, 2018, 04:19:21 AM

Good day everyone and I apologize in advance if I've posted in the wrong subforum.

I have submitted a paperwork about microbial fuel cells not long ago to my professor. I also included possible problems that this kind of fuel cell has to face before being accepted as a viable renewable source of energy, such as the reduction of potential losses. However I have trouble understanding some basic concepts:

• Is it correct to say that the "open circuit voltage (OCV)" of a (microbial) fuel cell is lower than its "electromotive force" because of these following factors: activation losses, ohmic losses, mass transport losses? Or are the aforementioned factors only responsible for the difference between open-circuit and close-circuit voltage? It's because in my paperwork I have submitted, I've written that the difference between open-circuit voltage and theoretical voltage is due to those three factors. I'd like to know if I understood the concepts and used the terminologies correctly and to predict the eventual corrections my professor will do on my paperwork.