Analysis of Gas Leakage and Current Loss of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells by Screen Printing

One of the biggest advantages of SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) is the probable use of methane as fuel. However, when the actual SOFC stack is operating with CH₄ as fuel, due to the catalytic action of metal nickel, carbon will deposit on SOFC anode and nickel foam, which directly shorten the SOFC operating life and lead to performance degradation. The planar anode-supported Ni-YSZ|YSZ|LSCF SOFC was chosen as the research object, with the cell size of 12cm×12cm and the effective area of 100cm², and the holder is made of 99% purity of Al₂O₃ ceramic material, in order to eliminate the influence of Cr in stainless steel. The one-cell stack operated at 750℃, and the maximum power density was 0.35W/cm² when the fuel is 0.5slm/min pure hydrogen. The stability experiment was conducted first under pure H₂ for 100h, then fuel was switched into pure methane, and another 100h of voltage stability was tested. In this work, the temperature distribution of the stack was monitored, whose relationship with the weight gain and the micro-structure of the nickel foam was established, and a possible explanation of the carbon deposition distribution and process on the nickel foam was put forward.