Electrochemical Methane Reforming Using SrZr 0.5 Ce 0.4 Y 0.1 O 3-d proton-Conductor Cell

• Published in: Meeting abstracts (Electrochemical Society) Vol. MA2016-02; no. 40; p. 3039
• Main Authors: Maeda, Shota, Kurashina, Daisuke, Leonard, Kwati, Lee, Young-Sung, Matsumoto, Hiroshige
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 01.09.2016
• ISSN: 2151-2043; 2151-2035
• DOI: 10.1149/MA2016-02/40/3039

Hydrogen will be an important energy carrier and its demand will increase significantly in the coming years. Technologies to separate hydrogen from various hydrogen production processes will thus be required. Currently steam reforming of natural gas is the most common method to produce hydrogen. The process is generally carried out at high temperature and the produced hydrogen is usually mixed with other gases. The recovery of hydrogen at high temperature without the need for cooling will significantly enhance the efficiency and performance of the system. The way to use a solid oxide cell as a membrane reactor for hydrogen production can work for this purpose. The use of high temperature proton conducting membranes to pump out the hydrogen will be a useful approach to recover highly pure hydrogen.  In the present study, dense SrZr 0.5 Ce 0.4 Y 0.1 O 3-δ (SZCY541) perovskite membrane was combined with NiO-SZCY541 electrode to produced hydrogen via steam reforming of methane. SZCY541 was prepared by conventional solid state reaction using SrCO 3 , CeO 2 , ZrO 2 , Y 2 O 3 as precursors. The precursors were appropriately weighed, mixed and calcined at 1350 o C for 10 h in air, then ball-milled and the obtained powder pressed into pellets, and sintered at 1700 o C for 10 h in air. The hydrogen pumping was performed at 600 – 800 o C in moist CH 4 and 1% H 2 atmosphere. The atmosphere of each electrode was measured by gas chromatography. Material resistance, electrode voltage were evaluated using a current interrupt method. When the gas composition was measured as a function of the current, it was seen that hydrogen at the anode decreased while that at the cathode gradually increased. The rates are consistent with the theoretical calculated efficiency using Faraday’s law. Only hydrogen could be separated without the permeation of the other gases at the cathode. The anode overvoltage was observed to deteriorate due to the addition of methane. In this conclusion, high temperature proton conducting membranes can be used to pump hydrogen for the separation of pure hydrogen from the reforming of methane. It was also possible to confirm the effects of overvoltage application. Figure 1