NH3-Fed Patterned Electrode Solid Oxide Fuel Cell: Experimental Performance Characterization and Elementary Reaction Modeling

Ammonia-fueled solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have attracted the focus of researchers due to the feature of no carbon emission. Understanding the reaction mechanism is vital for the design and optimization of NH 3 -fed SOFCs. However, the catalytic decomposition reactions involved in porous electrodes led to the difficulty to distinguish the anode reaction mechanism. In the present study, we utilized a patterned anode to get a designed triple phase boundary (TPB) and avoid the effects of porous electrodes. In the performance test, we found that the current density of the NH 3 -fed SOFC was approximately 20% of that of the H 2 -fed SOFC under a similar working position at 750℃. The difference may mainly resulted from the limit of catalytic decomposition of NH 3 caused by the narrow reactive area in the patterned electrode. A one-dimensional elementary reaction model was further developed to validate this hypothesis and to provide additional evidence for the reaction mechanisms of the NH 3 -fed SOFC.