Hydrogen enriched natural gas-fueled solid oxide fuel cells supported by Ni-Cu co-doping CeO2-δ catalyst-modified finger-like pore anode

Hydrogen blending in natural gas pipelines is one of the key technologies to realize the long-distance hydrogen transmission, which facilitates the large-scale hydrogen utilization. Solid oxide fuel cells can directly use hydrogen enriched natural gas (HENG, with 20 % H2) to generate electricity without separating and purifying the hydrogen, which enables the efficient conversion of hydrogen energy. In this work, finger-like pore anodes and Ni0.05Cu0.05Ce0.9O2-delta (NCCO) catalyst are prepared to address the need for anode performance and stability with hydrogen-doped natural gas fuels. The results show that NiCu@CeO2 precipitates NiCu nano-alloys on the surface after reduction treatment, which is beneficial for the anode activity. With NCCO catalyst, the maximum power densities of the single cells are 970 mW cm-2 and 700 mW cm- 2 at 750 degrees C under wet H2 and HENG fuel atmospheres, respectively. At 750 degrees C, the methane conversion is as high as 46 %. More importantly, the single cell can run smoothly for 150 h, with the constant voltage (0.8 V) discharge and HENG as fuel gas. Our results confirm that the synthesized NCCO catalysts have excellent ability to catalyze CH4 and carbon resistance.