Degradation behavior of solid oxide fuel cell (sofc) with trace hydrocarbons

The effects of hydrocarbon-contained in fuel gas on SOFC with Ni-YSZ as anode are evaluated in this study. Low concentration of toluene was mixed with 96.9% hydrogen and 3.1% steam to simulate bio-syngas, corresponding to current developments of biomass gasification technology. Power generation performance was investigated under Galvano-static-mode with toluene concentrations from 0 mg/Nm3 t o 1900 mg/Nm3 at 850°C for 30 hours. Impedance spectroscopy under OCV conditions was also conducted to assess SOFC's internal resistance. As the result, SOFC shows a good stability and generation performance without toluene exposure. However, the voltage decreases even under a low concentration of 380 mg/Nm3 while keeping current density constant at 200 mA/cm2. Furthermore, this degradation tends to be serious as concentration of toluene increases. Dramatic voltage drop and visible carbon deposition should not be insignificant when toluene's concentration was 1900 mg/Nm3. This performance loss seems to be recovered to a certain extent without serious structure destruction on anode. © 2021 Japan Institute of Energy. All rights reserved.