Investigations On The Power Generation Properties Of CBM-SOFC

Shanxi Province is rich in Coal-bed methane (CBM) resources. In order to promote industrial upgrading and achieve sustainable development, it is significant to study how to use the CBM through an clean and efficient way. Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an efficient and clean power generation device. So far, the nickel-based composite anode is widely used in the world because of its high electrochemically active, high electronic conductivity, good stability, low price and other merits. However, when we use hydrocarbon as the fuel, it is easy to form the carbon formation on the anode, then lead to the battery performance induced. The problem is a big challenge in hydrocarbon SOFC, such as the CBM SOFC.After our investigation on some CBM exploration and production corporations of Shanxi Province, we found out that the enterprise did not use the methane’s concentration of CBM less than 30% efficient. All of them have been discharged into air after dilution. So not only the environment is polluted and increase the greenhouse effect, but also the precious resource be. wasted greatlyIn this thesis, we present a new strategy by combining the new technology of SOFC, so that we can find a new way to use the low concentration CBM efficient. Through our research, we found that the CBM SOFC showed a good performance in chemical catalytic properties and electrochemical stability by use 25% ratio of CBM as the fuel. Under 850℃, the conversion rate of CH4 reached more than 99% in the chemical catalytic process. On the electrochemical stable operations, the CBM SOFC could also run for 168h with stable performance under 850℃. At the same time, whether chemical catalytic process or electrochemical stability operation, there is not carbon deposition. Hence, the low concentration (30%) CBM had the value to use as the fuel of SOFC. We still have a lot of work to do in this direction.