Honeycomb-type Single Chamber SOFC Running on Methane-Air Mixture

Methane-Air 혼합 Gas에서 구동하는 하니컴 형태의 SC-SOFC

One of the most critical issues in sol id oxide fuel cell (SOFC)running on hydrocarbon fuels is the risk of carbon formation from the fuel gas. The simple method to reduce the risk of carbon formation from the reactions is to add steam to the fuel stream, leading to the carbon gasification react ion. However, the addition of steam to fuel is not appropriate for the auxiliary power unit (APU) and potable power generation (PPG) systems due to an increase of complexity and bulkiness. In this regard, many researchers have focused on so-called 'direct methane' operation of SOFC, which works with dry methane without coking. However, coking can be suppressed only by the operation with a high current density, which may be a drawback especially for the APU and PPG systems. The single chamber fuel cell (SC-SOFC) is a novel simplification of the conventional SOFC into which a premixed fuel/air mixture is introduced. It relies on the selectivity of the anode and cathode catalysts to generate a chemical potential gradient across the cell. Moreover it allows compact and seal-free stack design. In this study, we fabricated honeycomb type mixed-gas fuel cell (MGFC) which has advantages of stacking to the axial direction and increasing volume power density. Honeycomb-structured SOFC with four channels was prepared by dry pressing method. Two alternative channels were coated with electrolyte and cathode slurry in order to make cathodic reaction sites. We will discuss that the anode supported honeycomb type cell running on mixed gas condition.