A-site deficient La0.2Sr0.7TiO3−δ anode material for proton conducting ethane fuel cell to cogenerate ethylene and electricity

•LSTA and BCZY are synthesized by solid state reaction method.•LSTA shows remarkable conductivity at high temperature in reducing atmosphere.•LSTA shows good catalytic activity towards the oxidation of ethane.•The ethane PC-SOFC exhibits high selectivity to ethylene without CO2 emission.•The ethane PC-SOFC achieves power density of 320 mW/cm2 at 750 °C.

A site deficient La0.2Sr0.7TiO3−δ (LSTA) and a highly proton conductive electrolyte BaCe0.7Zr0.1Y0.2O3−δ (BCZY) are synthesized by using solid state reaction method. The performance of the electrolyte-supported single cell, comprised of LSTA + Cr2O3 + Cu//BCZY//(La0.60Sr0.40)0.95Co0.20Fe0.80O3−δ (LSCF)+BCZY, is fabricated and investigated. LSTA shows remarkably high electrical performance, with a conductivity as high as 27.78 Scm−1 at 1150 °C in a 10% H2/N2 reducing atmosphere. As a main anode component, it shows good catalytic activity towards the oxidation of ethane, causing the power density to considerably increase from 158.4 mW cm−2 to 320.9 mW cm−2 and the ethane conversion to significantly rise from 12.6% to 30.9%, when the temperature increases from 650 °C to 750 °C. These changes agree well with the polarization resistance which dramatically decreases from 0.346 Ωcm2 to 0.112 Ωcm2. EDX measurement shows that no element diffusion exists (chemical compatibility) between anode (LSTA + Cr2O3+Cu) and electrolyte (BCZY). With these properties, the pure phase LSTA is evaluated as a high electro-catalytic activity anode material for ethane proton conducting solid oxide fuel cell (PC-SOFC).