Nickel‐Based Anode with Water Storage Capability to Mitigate Carbon Deposition for Direct Ethanol Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Abstract

The potential to use ethanol as a fuel places solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) as a sustainable technology for clean energy delivery because of the renewable features of ethanol versus hydrogen. In this work, we developed a new class of anode catalyst exemplified by Ni+BaZr0.4Ce0.4Y0.2O3 (Ni+BZCY) with a water storage capability to overcome the persistent problem of carbon deposition. Ni+BZCY performed very well in catalytic efficiency, water storage capability and coking resistance tests. A stable and high power output was well maintained with a peak power density of 750 mW cm(-2) at 750 °C. The SOFC with the new robust anode performed for seven days without any sign of performance decay, whereas SOFCs with conventional anodes failed in less than 2 h because of significant carbon deposition. Our findings indicate the potential applications of these water storage cermets as catalysts in hydrocarbon reforming and as anodes for SOFCs that operate directly on hydrocarbons.

Rational Design of a Water‐Storable Hierarchical Architecture Decorated with Amorphous Barium Oxide and Nickel Nanoparticles as a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Anode with Excellent Sulfur Tolerance

“…As shown in Figure S17 in the Supporting Information, the onset temperature and peak temperature are two most important parameters to embody the easiness of the reduction of NiO, which are closely related to the NiO‐substrate interaction. The NiO was reduced at an onset temperature of around 203 °C, and the peak temperatures were 260 and 351 °C, which matched pretty well with the literature 22. For the NiO+SDC anode, the onset temperature and the peak temperature were found to be 280 and 409 °C, respectively, which were comparable to those of the free NiO, respectively, suggesting the weak interaction between NiO and SDC in the conventional NiO+SDC anode.…”

“…Another important strategy for improving the coking/sulfur tolerance of Ni‐based anodes is to increase the gasification rate of deposited carbon/sulfur on the anode 21, 22, 23. In the oxygen‐ion‐conducting SOFCs, water is produced at the anode under current polarization, which can be used to remove the deposited carbon/sulfur on the anode.…”

“…In a pioneering work, Liu and co‐workers reported that BaO nanoparticles deposited on Ni surface can adsorb water, facilitating the rapid removal of the deposited carbon/sulfur on the anode 21. More recently, Shao and co‐workers demonstrated that using a water‐storable proton conductor in a Ni‐based anode resulted in excellent coking/sulfur resistance 22, 23. However, the operational stability of this anode was unsatisfactory due to the large Ni particle size and poor contact between Ni and the water‐storable phase 23…”

Ethylene glycol as a new sustainable fuel for solid oxide fuel cells with conventional nickel-based anodes

“…The characterizations include carbon deposition tests, morphologies evaluation, gas composition analyses and electrochemical performance tests. BSCF, SSC and SDC were synthesized using an EDTA-citrate complexing sol-gel method [29]. The synthesized compounds were further calcined in ambient air at 950°C (BSCF), 1000°C (SSC) and 800°C (SDC) for 5 h, separately, to achieve the desired crystal phase.…”

“…The synthesized compounds were further calcined in ambient air at 950°C (BSCF), 1000°C (SSC) and 800°C (SDC) for 5 h, separately, to achieve the desired crystal phase. Anode-supported SOFCs were prepared via the tape-casting method [29]. Either a BSCF or SSC cathode slurry was deposited on the surface of the electrolyte with an area of 0.48 cm 2 .…”