Fabrication and operation of flow‐through tubular SOFCs for electric power and synthesis gas cogeneration from methane

Abstract

Flow-through type tubular solid oxide fuel cells were successfully fabricated and operated with a single-chamber configuration for realizing the simultaneous generation of electric power and synthesis gas from methane by integrating a downstream catalyst into the fuel cell reactor. A new operation mode, which completely eliminated the gas diffusion between cathode side and anode side, is proposed. The cell showed high open-circuit voltages of 1.02-1.08 V at the furnace temperature range of 650-800 C when operating on CH 4 -O 2 gas mixture at a molar ratio of 2:1. A peak power density of approximately 300 mW cm 22 and a maximum power output of 1.5 W were achieved for a single cell with an effective cathode geometric surface area of 5.4 cm 2 at the furnace temperature of 750 C. The in-situ initialization of the cell using CH 4 -O 2 gas mixture was also realized via applying an effective catalyst into the tubular cell.

Toward highly efficient in situ dry reforming of H2S contaminated methane in solid oxide fuel cells via incorporating a coke/sulfur resistant bimetallic catalyst layer

“…This effect is benecial in terms of GHG control/chemical coproduction, and has been rarely reported in hydrocarbon fueled SOFCs. [50][51][52] In fact, both the C-SOFC and TA-SOFC were employed with oxygen-conducting electrolytes. Theoretically, O 2À can readily oxidize both CO and H 2 when the SOFC is biased.…”

Process Investigation of a Solid Carbon-Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Integrated with a CO2-Permeating Membrane and a Sintering-Resistant Reverse Boudouard Reaction Catalyst

“…For the CAB that was fueled by FeK/Al + C (CAB 2), as shown in Figure b, a serious concentration polarization appeared at temperatures lower than 825 °C, while for CAB 1, such concentration polarization appeared only at the operating temperature of 725 °C (the lowest temperature investigated). On the basis of the initial I – V curves with the low current density and the linear response of the cell voltage with respect to the polarization current, the calculated CAB resistances were 1.17, 0.90, 0.87, 0.80, 0.72, and 0.65 Ω cm 2 at 725, 750, 775, 800, 825, and 850 °C, respectively, for CAB 1 . As a comparison, the resistances for CAB 2 were 1.61, 1.28, 0.98, 0.80, 0.73, and 0.68 Ω cm 2 at the corresponding temperatures, demonstrating that both CABs have comparable resistances; therefore, the difference in electrochemical performance should be contributed mainly by the performance of the different catalyst–carbon mixtures.…”

The Development of Current Collection in Micro-Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells—A Review

“…In the latter, an external inert support may be used such as a porous ceramic material or the interconnect itself. Early tubular and planar cells were either cathode or electrolyte-supported but now the standard is anode-supported which allows for lower operating temperatures and ohmic [20][21][22][23][24][25]), ** ( [26,27]), *** ( [28][29][30]).…”

“…As such, research and development into SOFCs, and specifically µT-SOFC technology, must address key bottlenecks to be competitive. The key areas for development in SOFCs are material development [20][21][22][23][24][25], current collection/interconnection, sealing [26,27] and stack/system design [28][29][30]. Tubular SOFC current collection/interconnection development is somewhat more geometry-specific than the other aforementioned bottlenecks versus planar designs and thus is the focus of this study.…”