Membrane-based catalytic partial oxidation of ethanol coupled with steam reforming for solid oxide fuel cells

The present study was aimed at developing a new ethanol reforming process by integrating oxygen separation, partial oxidation and steam reforming in a membrane reactor. The reactor was constructed with the composite membrane of yttria-stabilized zirconia-La0.8Sr0.2Cr0.5Fe0.5O3-delta of effective area 5 cm(2) and Ni-Ru/Al2O3 catalyst of loading 5 wt%. It attained ethanol conversion 99.9%, H-2 selectivity 90.8% and CO selectivity 74.6% with ethanol feed rate 30 mL min(-1) and steam 54 mL min(-1) at 800 degrees C. Running on the as-produced syngas fuel, a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) demonstrated a maximum power density of 999 mW cm(-2) at 750 degrees C, which was just slightly lower than on pure hydrogen fuel. Compared with the conventional fixed bed reactor, the membrane reactor explored in the present study showed clear advantages in terms of heat management and syngas concentration, promising for us as ethanol pre-reformer in SOFC.

Automated summary

The study successfully developed a new ethanol reforming process and achieved high ethanol conversion rate and selectivity in a membrane reactor. The experiment demonstrated that the membrane reactor has better heat management and syngas concentration control compared to traditional fixed bed reactors, making it suitable for ethanol pre-reforming in solid oxide fuel cells.