Catalytic properties of new anode materials for solid oxide fuel cells operated under methane at intermediary temperature

The recent trend in solid oxide fuel cell concerns the use of natural gas a s fuel. Steam reforming of methane is a well-established process for produc ing hydrogen directly at the anode side. In order to develop new anode mate rials, the catalytic activities of several oxides for the steam reforming o f methane were characterized by gas chromatography. We studied the catalyti c activity as a function of steam/carbon ratios r. The methane and the stea m content were varied between 5 and 30% and between 1.5 and 3.5%, respectiv ely, corresponding to r-values between 0.07 and 0.7. Catalyst (ruthenium an d vanadium)-doped lanthanum chromites substituted with strontium, gadoliniu m-doped ceria (Ce0.9Gd0.1O2) referred as to CeGdO2, praseodymium oxide, mol ybdenum oxide and copper oxide were tested. The working temperature was fix ed at 850 degreesC, except for 5% ruthenium-doped La1-xSrxCrO3 where the te mperature was varied between 700 and 850 degreesC. Two, types of behavior w ere observed as a function of the activity of the catalyst. The higher stea m reforming efficiency was observed with 5% of ruthenium above 750 degreesC . (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.