A Comprehensive Investigation on the Direct-Ammonia Thin-Film Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (TF-SOFCs) and the Effect of Porosity-Control of the Anode Support Layer

Abstract

Ammonia is highly regarded as a hydrogen storage and transportation medium due to its various advantages. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) can achieve high synergy by using ammonia directly as fuel without the ammonia decomposition reactor and filtration devices. We confirmed the distribution of hydrogen produced by the decomposition of ammonia through 2D multi-physics numerical modeling and predicted the decomposition rate and maximum current density according to the tortuosity. Based on the results, we adjusted the pore volume of the anode-support layer using PMMA to reduce tortuosity and facilitate hydrogen supply and produced anode support layer-anode functional layer substrate. We then manufactured a Thin-film SOFC and tested using hydrogen and ammonia fuel, and achieved high performance of 1897 and 1357 mW/cm2 at 650 °C.