TIAN Fengyuan ¹, ZHOU Mingyang ¹, WANG Wei ^{1, 2}, LIU Jiang ¹

(1. School of Environment and Energy, South China University of Technology, Guangzhou 510006, Guangdong, China; 2. Shenzhen BYD Battery Co. Ltd, Shenzhen 518000, Guangdong, China)

Abstract:  Syngas (H₂ and CO) is an important raw material for chemical production, which is mainly obtained through reforming or partial oxidation of methane. The traditional method of reforming methane to syngas has the problems of high energy consumption and catalyst failure. Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) transports oxygen from cathode to anode through electrolyte, so that methane is electrochemically oxidized at anode due to the conduction of oxygen ions. The oxygen content involved in the reaction could be controlled by adjusting the current and voltage, so as to prevent the failure of catalyst and improve the comprehensive utilization efficiency of fuels. In the present work, the feasibility of electrochemical partial oxidation of methane with SOFC was studied, in order to achieve co-generation of gas and electricity. It was found that syngas was the main gaseous products from the anode of the SOFC operated with methane as the fuel. In addition, the variation in H₂/CO ratio with operating conditions was highly regular. The H₂/CO ratio was decreased with increasing current density at a certain operating temperature, while it was increased with increasing temperature at a certain operating current density. An important industrial feedstock for producing carbonyl compound, syngas with H₂/CO ratio of 1, was obtained at 700 ℃ at 135 mA·cm^-2. The experimental results and the corresponding mechanisms are analyzed in details.

Key words:  syngas; electrochemical partial oxidation of methane; solid oxide fuel cell; gas-electricity co-generation