Proceedings of the Second International Energy 2030 Conference,
November 4-5, 2008, Abu Dhabi, UAE

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for Energy Recovery from Light Hydrocarbons

G. Jackson
University of Maryland, USA

P. Jawlik
University of Maryland, USA

S. Patel
University of Maryland, USA

S. DeCaluwe
University of Maryland, USA

B. Eichhorn
University of Maryland, USA

Abstract
Solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC’s) offer significant potential for efficiently capturing energy from light hydrocarbons streams derived from petroleum extraction and/or processing. To date, however, development of SOFC’s for large-scale applications with hydrocarbons have not come to fruition due to concerns about the long-term stability of conventional Ni-YSZ SOFC anode materials. This study is a multi-scale effort to explore the effectiveness of SOFC anodes operating either on reformate derived from light hydrocarbons or on light hydrocarbons directly. Anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) utilizing Ni-CeO₂-YSZ composite anode architectures were fabricated and tested on hydrogen and syngas fuel feeds to evaluate the effect of adding ceria on the effectiveness on Ni-based anodes on operating with these carbonaceous fuels. These studies are being combined with detailed SOFC modeling to develop an understanding of the kinetic behavior of Ni and CeO₂ for stable operation with carbonaceous fuel feeds in composite anode materials. These studies are providing the basis for developing models for assessing the behavior of SOFC electrochemical cells for larger-scale applications with the hope that further progress can be made on SOFC anode design for stable operation in future large-scale applications for petroleum processing and other applications.