Investigations on the influence of phenol as a model tar on Ni/YSZ anodes using electrical impedance spectroscopy

Coupling the gasification of biomass with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) offers a promising way to generate power in a carbon neutral and efficient manner. While the gasification product has a suitable composition to be converted in an SOFC, there are biogenic contaminants like tars and sulfur that lower the performance, or can even lead to irreversible damage to the anode. The complete removal of these traces significantly increases the costs of a gasifier-SOFC-system. Therefore, the anode must become more tolerant towards biogenic contaminants originating from the gasification process. As a reference for this optimization, anode supported cells were tested for several hundred hours under realistic conditions using a cell size of 100 x 100 mm², with syngas as fuel, consisting of 50 % H2O, 25 % H2, 10 % CO, 10 % CO2, 5 % CH4, a current density of up to 0,5 A/cm², and in presence of phenol as a model-contaminant. In situ, electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the conversion via the distribution of relaxation times (DRT) were used to reveal changes of the cell in an early stage.     «

Coupling the gasification of biomass with solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) offers a promising way to generate power in a carbon neutral and efficient manner. While the gasification product has a suitable composition to be converted in an SOFC, there are biogenic contaminants like tars and sulfur that lower the performance, or can even lead to irreversible damage to the anode. The complete removal of these traces significantly increases the costs of a gasifier-SOFC-system. Therefore, the anode...     »