Performance evaluation of solid oxide fuel cell with in-situ methane reforming

• CO2 in-situ reforming of CH4 was successfully achieved on LSCFN based anode.
• Cell performance was dramatically promoted by CO2 addition.
• LSCFN based anode possessed stable and wide operation range with CO2–CH4 fuel.
• A2BO4 with metal structure demonstrated good catalytic activity to DRM reaction.

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a promising power generation technology with a wide range of fuel flexibility. In this paper, performance evaluation of SOFC fuelled with carbon based fuels like CH4 were carried out on La0.8Sr0.2Ga0.83Mg0.17O3−δ (LSGM) electrolyte supported single cell with symmetrical electrodes consisted of La0.4Sr0.6Co0.2Fe0.7Nb0.1O3−δ (LSCFN)–Gd0.1Ce0.9O1.95 (GDC) functional layers and LSCFN current collect layers. In-situ reforming of methane by carbon dioxide at the anode was successfully achieved on LSCFN based anode, which greatly enhanced the cell performance. The maximum power density of the single cell was dramatically increased from 280 to 455 mW/cm2 when fuelled with 10% CO2–90% CH4 compared with pure methane at 850 °C with a fuel inlet rate of 50 mL/min. No obvious degradation was observed during the cell operation, demonstrating a stable and wide operation range with CO2–CH4 fuel on LSCFN based anode.