Catalytic properties of new anode materials for solid oxide fuel cells operated under methane at intermediary temperature

The recent trend in solid oxide fuel cell concerns the use of natural gas as fuel. Steam reforming of methane is a well-established process for producing hydrogen directly at the anode side. In order to develop new anode materials, the catalytic activities of several oxides for the steam reforming of methane were characterized by gas chromatography. We studied the catalytic activity as a function of steam/carbon ratios r. The methane and the steam content were varied between 5 and 30% and between 1.5 and 3.5%, respectively, corresponding to r-values between 0.07 and 0.7. Catalyst (ruthenium and vanadium)-doped lanthanum chromites substituted with strontium, gadolinium-doped ceria (Ce0.9Gd0.1O2) referred as to CeGdO2, praseodymium oxide, molybdenum oxide and copper oxide were tested. The working temperature was fixed at 850 degreesC, except for 5% ruthenium-doped La1-xSrxCrO3 where the temperature was varied between 700 and 850 degreesC. Two, types of behavior were observed as a function of the activity of the catalyst. The higher steam reforming efficiency was observed with 5% of ruthenium above 750 degreesC. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.