Solid oxide fuel cell operating on liquid organic hydrogen carrier-based hydrogen - making full use of heat integration potentials

Our contribution demonstrates the technological potential of coupling Liquid Organic Hydrogen Carrier (LOHC)-based hydrogen storage and hydrogen -based Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) operation. As SOFC operation creates waste heat at a temperature level of more than 600 degrees C, clever heat transfer from the SOFC operation to the LOHC dehydrogenation process is possible and results in an overall efficiency of 45% (electric output of SOFC vs. lower heating value of LOHC-bound hydrogen). Moreover, we demonstrate that LOHC vapour does not harm the operational stability of a typical 150 W SOFC short stack. By operating the stack with LOHC-saturated hydrogen, operation times of more than 10 years have been simulated without noticeable degradation of SOFC performance. (C) 2017 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.