A microchannel reactor-integrated ceramic fuel cell with dual-coupling effect for efficient power and syngas co-generation from methane

Co-generation of electricity and syngas from methane via solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) to achieve zero emission is highly attractive for enhancing the energy efficiency of methane utilization. However, it remains a great challenge to simultaneously achieve high power output and syngas formation rate, and sufficient operational stability in existing SOFCs. In this work, we successfully demonstrate the efficient co-generation by the innovative integration of a catalytic microchannel reactor within anodes. The integrated anode has unique dendritic channels loaded with highly efficient nanofibrous Ni-based composite that functions as an internal catalyst bed reformer. The resulting SOFC demonstrates both thermal coupling and materials coupling effects between exothermal fuel oxidation reactions and endothermal reforming reactions and thus improves peak power density by 25 %, syngas yield by more than 2 times and improved operational stability compared to the SOFC without the microchannel reactor. The new SOFC design holds great potential for practical applications.