High temperature electrolysis cells with the use of solid oxide fuel cell state-of-the-art electrode materials

Abstract

The purpose of this paper is to study the performance and stability of water electrolysis cells (Solid Oxide Electrolyser Cells-SOECs), as well as co-electrolysis of water and carbon dioxide using commercial materials to construct both the anode and cathode electrode. More specifically, this paper studies the effect of the Ni-YSZ cermet (8% mol Y2Ο3/ZrO2) cathode electrode loading on the performance of the cell operating under electrolysis conditions. The study is made on button Electrolyte Supported Cells (ESC) cells, based on 8YSZ electrolyte disks (1,5mm thick, 20mm diameter). Typical LSM and LSM-YSZ is used as anode (oxygen) electrode, while the anode loading remains stable. The geometric surface of the electrodes is 1.76 cm2. The results indicate that the performance of both the Η2Ο-CΟ2 co-electrolysis, and the Η2Ο electrolysis, depends on the cathode electrode (Ni-YSZ) loading. Accordingly, it was found that a 13 mg cm-2 loading of the cathode electrode ensures maximum performance, while higher loadings tend to reduce performance