Hydrazine as efficient fuel for low-temperature SOFC through ex-situ catalytic decomposition with high selectivity toward hydrogen

Hydrazine is a promising fuel for portable fuel cells because it is a liquid, it is carbon free and it has a high energy density. In this work, hydrazine was investigated as an efficient fuel for low temperature solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) with a traditional nickel anode. A catalytic system with high selectivity toward hydrogen was developed using Ba0.5Sr0.5-Co0.8Fe0.2O3-delta (BSCF) as the main catalyst and potassium hydroxide as the promoter. The result of compositional analysis of the products showed that the hydrazine can be decomposed into hydrogen and nitrogen with 100% selectivity when an appropriate amount of KOH promoter is used. Acceptable power densities were achieved for a thin-film samaria-doped ceria (SDC) electrolyte cell operating on hydrazine decomposition products and hydrogen over a complete operation temperature range of 650-450 degrees C. In addition, a similar cell with ammonia as the fuel displayed a much lower performance. (C) 2010 Professor T. Nejat Veziroglu. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.