Catalytic partial oxidation of methane on Ni-YSZ cermet anode of solid oxide fuel cells

The effects of oxygen addition to the methane fuels directly supplied to solid oxide fuel cells were investigated. Fundamental experiments were conducted using Ni-YSZ cermet as a typical anode material. The Ni-YSZ catalysts having different streamwise lengths were fabricated on the YSZ flat plates. Premixed gas of methane, oxygen, nitrogen and stream was supplied to the test catalyst set in a rectangular test channel. The exhaust gas compositions and the surface temperature distributions of the test catalyst were measured. It was found that the oxidation of methane prominently proceeded near the upstream edge of the catalyst followed by steam/dry reforming reactions downstream. It resulted in a formation of the high temperature region leading a large temperature gradient in the streamwise direction.