Investigation of fuel composition and efficiency of solid oxide fuel cell with different methanol pretreating technologies

ABSTRACT

In this paper, fuel composition and efficiency of solid oxide fuel cell with different methanol pretreating technologies are investigated. High concentrations of H₂ and CO can be produced by methanol pretreatment at high temperature, whereas high concentration of methane can be produced at low temperature under the thermodynamic equilibrium condition. For steam reforming of methanol, high cell efficiency can be obtained, whereas for partial oxidation of methanol, the cell efficiency decreases most obviously compared with other pretreating technologies with the increase of O/C ratio. When the O/C ratio is 1.5, the cell efficiencies are 55.89% for steam reforming of methanol, 50.83% for autothermal reforming of methanol, and 45.77% for partial oxidation of methanol at 80% equivalent fuel utilization and 1073 K. When the O/C ratio increases to 2.5, the cell efficiency decreases slowly to 52.01% for steam reforming of methanol, whereas rapidly to 21.68% for partial oxidation of methanol at 80% equivalent fuel utilization and 1073 K. According to the calculated results under the thermodynamic equilibrium condition, suitable pretreating technology and O/C ratio for methanol pretreatment can be selected for the operation of solid oxide fuel cell, which can lead to the high efficiency and good stability of solid oxide fuel cell.

KEYWORDS:

• Solid oxide fuel cell
• cell efficiency
• fuel composition
• methanol
• pretreating technology

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the financial supports from the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China (Grant No. ZR2020KE035) and Chris Morley for Gaseq program.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Natural Science Foundation of Shandong Province, China [ZR2020KE035].