Effect of cell sintering temperature on the performance of non-noble metal loaded cerium oxide SOEC anodes

Abstract

Abstract Introducing methane oxidation reaction into the anode of the high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) can reduce the power consumption for water electrolysis. Compared to the traditional conditions of methane oxidation, the methane oxidation catalyst sintered at the SOEC anode, which is closely related to the cell sintering process. This study uses non-noble metals as active sites for methane oxidation, zirconia, and samarium oxides doped ceria as catalyst support and oxygen ion conductors. The effects of anode sintering temperature on the electrochemical performance of SOEC assisted by methane oxidation were investigated. The results indicate that the high-temperature sintering process promotes the performance of the SOEC anode with Ni as the active site, while high temperature harms the performance of the Co-loaded anode. The sintering temperature exhibits a poor effect on the Fe-loaded anode. The Ni exhibits good enhancement of methane oxidation on reducing the electrolysis voltage of SOEC, while Co only exhibits methane oxidation assistance at low-temperature sintering. Differently, Fe has almost no obvious methane oxidation assistance for SOEC, which mainly represents good oxygen evolution performance.