SBIR Phase I: Demonsration of a Prototype Solid Oxide Fuel Cell For Co-Generation of Electricity and Syngas from Natural Gas

这个小型企业创新研究第一阶段项目将利用直接甲烷SOFC，通过使用电化学部分氧化(EPOX)使甲烷与氧气反应来生产合成气。合成气是氢气和合成液体化学品/燃料的前体，包括甲醇和各种碳氢化合物。其优点与陶瓷膜反应器相似：合成气无需氮气稀释，通过氧分离和部分氧化步骤相结合的工艺强化降低了成本。SOFC还有一个额外的优势--双重产品：合成气和电力--可以显著提高经济效益。FCT最近证明，使用传统的Ni-YSZ阳极支撑SOFC，可在750°C下高速生产合成气(30sccm/cm2)和高功率密度(0.9W/cm2)。据报道，SOFC的稳定电输出长达300小时。该项目将开发SOFC的替代支持材料，以促进在天然气等燃料中和在硫磺存在下的直接稳定运行。FCT建议将其在分段串联SOFC设计方面的专业知识应用于扩大EPOX的商业应用。EPOX发电的规模将扩大到大约100瓦和4L/分钟的合成气体的小堆。该项目展示了一项在燃料电池和替代燃料领域具有潜在重大影响的新技术。众所周知，成本是燃料电池商业化引进和氢等燃料被接受的主要障碍。通过联合生产合成气/氢气和电力，这里展示的方法有可能降低两者的成本。这将不会是成本的递增减少，这可能是对技术改进的预期，而是由于一种全新的方法而导致的大幅减少。这项新技术有可能对这些技术的商业化产生重大影响。

This Small Business Innovation Research Phase I project will utilize direct-methane SOFCs to produce syngas by reacting methane with oxygen using electrochemical partial oxidation (EPOx). Syngas is a precursor for hydrogen and synthetic liquid chemicals/fuels including methanol and various hydrocarbons. Advantages are similar to ceramic membrane reactors: syngas without nitrogen dilution and reduced cost due to process intensification by combining the oxygen separation and partial oxidation steps. SOFCs have an added advantage - dual products: syngas and electricity - that can significantly improve economics. FCT recently demonstrated high-rate production of syngas (30 sccm/cm2) and high electrical power density (0.9 W/cm2) at 750°C using conventional Ni-YSZ anode-supported SOFCs. Stable SOFC electrical output was reported for up to 300 hours. This project will develop alternate support materials for SOFCs that facilitate direct stable operation in fuels such as natural gas and in the presence of sulfur. FCT proposes to implement its expertise in segmented in series SOFC design into for scaling up EPOx for commercial applications. A scale-up of EPOx generation to a small stack of approximately 100W and 4L/min of syngas will be performed.This project demonstrates a new technology with potentially major impact in the fuel cell and alternative fuels areas. It is well known that cost is the main barrier to commercial introduction of fuel cells and the acceptance of fuels such as hydrogen. By co-producing syngas/hydrogen and electricity, the method demonstrated here has the potential to decrease the cost of both. This will not be an incremental decrease in cost, as might be expected for an improvement of a technology, but a substantial decrease as a result of a completely new approach. This new technology has the potential to significantly impact commercialization of these technologies.