Thermodynamic analysis and fuel processing strategies for propane-fueled solid oxide fuel cell

Abstract

Propane is a particularly attractive fuel for solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) because it is cheap, widely available and easily stored with high energy density, while carbon deposition may be a serious problem in direct propane-fueled SOFC, thus efficient propane processing strategy is favored by SOFC. The fuel compositions, efficiency and stability of SOFC may be affected by propane processing strategies apparently. In this paper, the fuel compositions and cell efficiency are investigated for different propane pre-treating techniques. For steam reforming, CO2 reforming and anode off-gas reforming of propane, the decreasing rates of real fuel utilization and cell efficiency are apparently different with the change of equivalent fuel utilization. At high equivalent fuel utilization, the real fuel utilization and cell efficiency decrease slowly with the increase of oxygen to carbon (O/C) ratio. While at low equivalent fuel utilization, the real fuel utilization and cell efficiency decrease rapidly with the increase of O/C ratio. For catalytic partial oxidation of propane, the real fuel utilization and cell efficiency decrease rapidly and the decreasing rate is same at different equivalent fuel utilization with the increase of O/C ratio. Suitable proportions of steam, carbon dioxide and/or oxygen in the feed and efficient propane processing strategy can depress the carbon deposition and improve the cell efficiency.