Performance-enhanced direct ammonia protonic ceramic fuel cells using CeO₂-supported Ni and Ru catalyst layer

Abstract

Ammonia is an exceptional fuel for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), because of the high content of hydrogen and the advantages of carbon neutrality. However, the challenge lies in its unsatisfactory performance at intermediate temperatures (500‒600 °C), impeding its advancement. An electrolyte-supported proton-ceramic fuel cell (PCFC) was fabricated employing BaZr_0.1Ce_0.7Y_0.2O_3–δ (BZCY) as the electrolyte and Ba_0.5Sr_0.5Co_0.8Fe_0.2O_3–δ (BSCF) as the cathode. In this study, the performance of PCFC using NH₃ as fuel within an operating temperature range of 500‒700 °C was improved by adding an M(Ni,Ru)/CeO₂ catalyst layer to reconstruct the anode surface. The electrochemical performance of direct ammonia PCFC (DA-PCFC) were improved to different extents. Compared to H₂ as fuel, the degradation ratio of peak power densities (PPDs) of Ni/CeO₂-loaded PCFC fueled with NH₃ decreased at 700‒500 °C, with a decrease to 13.3% at 700 °C and 30.7% at 500 °C. The findings indicate that Ru-based catalysts have a greater promise for direct ammonia SOFCs (DA-SOFCs) at operating temperatures below 600 °C. However, the enhancement effect becomes less significant above 600 °C when compared to Ni-based catalysts.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

ammonia / proton-ceramic fuel cell (PCFC) / anode / M/CeO₂ catalyst layer

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Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 22278081, 22008034, U2005215, and 22378069), Fujian Science and Technology Major Project (2020HZ07009), the Natural Science Foundation of Fujian Province, China (Grant Nos. 2023J01066 and 2022J05027), the Talent Program of Fuzhou University (XRC-22036), and Fujian Science and Technology Innovation Key Project (2022G02012).

Competing Interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Electronic Supplementary Material

Supplementary material is available in the online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.1007/s11708-024-0959-z and is accessible for authorized users.

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