Investigation on the Chemical Degradation of SOFC Anode Caused By the Trace Level of Sulfur and Other Elements Possibly Contained in Coal Derived Fuel Gas

The integration of gasification and solid oxide fuel cells will be promising direction to meet the demand of clean and efficient utilization of coal for power generation.  This study focused on the impact on performance of Ni-YSZ SOFC anode of ppm-level contamination in wet hydrogen or simulated coal syngas (mixtures of H₂ and CO).  We observed that the trace level contamination of fuel with H₂S ranged from 0.02 to 2ppm resulted in the irrecoverable performance loss and slight acceleration of chemical degradation of anode which depended on the concentration of H₂S.  We also found that the injection of contaminated simulated coal syngas led to the faster degradation compared to the case with hydrogen injection.