Ethanol for fuel cells: an update on the activity carried out at CNR-ITAE

This communication complies with the general trend on SOFC about the utilization of low cost fuels. A possible scenario for the near future is the direct utilization of biofuels in SOFC stack. At the present, the conventional Ni-YSZ/YSZ/YDC/LSFC cells are affected from several constraints in the direct utilization of such fuels mainly consisting in the carbon formation and sulphur contamination of the anode. For this reason, in the short and medium terms a possible solution to these issues is the utilization of a barrier layer attached to the outermost side of the anode. At this scope, the pre-layer materials must show properties that may comply requirements such as mechanical, thermal and electrochemical properties at least similar to the Ni-YSZ. In addition, the catalyst must be deposited at very thin level in order to mitigate the ohmic constraint of an addition layer. Ni-based alloys (Ni-M, M=Ni, Co, and Fe) in combination with gadolinia-doped ceria is reported to be a valuable material for the oxidation of biofuels including the oxidation of sulphur compounds. Therefore, the investigation of such catalysts as protective layer becomes of interest in order to maintain the well established manufacturing technology around the SOFCs. With this preface, this communication will report the strategy adopted for the preparation of catalyst with a proper composition at the atomic level, the catalytic properties and physico-chemical properties of catalyst, as well as the electrochemical investigation of performances for the protected cells in comparison to that achieved for a bare cell.