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Ammonia (NH3) has 17.8 wt% hydrogen and is easily liquified at 25°C and 8 bar pressure. Ammonia is carbon-free and can be produced sustainably at large scale and low cost. Solid oxide fuel cells generate electricity with efficiencies greater than 60% and can use ammonia as fuel without the need for external cracking. In this work, a single-cell SOFC was characterized using the in-situ ammonia decomposition reaction (Int-ADR) and compared with the ex-situ ammonia decomposition reaction (Ext-ADR), and pure hydrogen (H2 100%), between temperatures of 750°C and 850°C. Constant load tests performed at 800°C with 84% fuel utilization reached the LHV efficiency of 58%. The open-circuit voltage (OCV) of Int-ADR was similar to that of Ext-ADR, confirming that usage of ammonia as fuel in the Ni-YSZ anode involved two steps (i) ammonia decomposition into nitrogen and hydrogen and (ii) electrochemical conversion of hydrogen into steam.
Jan Van Herle, Hamza Moussaoui, Gerald Hammerschmid
Jan Van Herle, Hossein Pourrahmani, Chengzhang Xu