Performance of Single-Chamber Intermediate-Temperature SOFCs Operated in Methane/Air Mixtures using PdO/NiO/CeO2-Sm2O3 Anodes

Abstract

In recent years, new concepts have been explored in order to find anodes adequate for operation with hydrocarbon fuels with high catalytic activity at intermediate temperatures, since the usual internal reforming of methane requires very high temperatures. In this sense, single-chamber SOFCs have attracted great attention because they take advantage of the ambient oxygen to produce H2 and CO by the partial oxidation of the hydrocarbon. In this work, we studied the performance of single-chamber intermediate-temperature SOFCs operated with methane as fuel using PdO/NiO/CeO2-Sm2O3 anodes. CeO2-Sm2O3 and Sm0.5Sr0.5CoO3 were used as electrolyte and cathode, respectively. All these materials were prepared by low-cost wet chemical methods. Our results showed that the incorporation of PdO in the anode allows to reach high peak power densities, of about 100 mW/cm2 at 600{degree sign}C.