Nickel/doped-ceria composites are promising electrocatalysts for solid-oxide fuel and electrolysis cells. Very often steam is present in the feedstock of the cells, frequently mixed with other gases, such as hydrogen or CO2 . An increase in the steam concentration in the feed mixture is considered accountable for the electrode oxidation and the deactivation of the device. However, direct experi...

We are developing a novel high-efficiency, high-temperature steam electrolyzer. Although water or steam electrolysis is well known to be one of the cleanest ways to produce hydrogen, widespread utilization is hindered by high operational costs because of high electricity consumption. To decrease the electrical power input requirements in electrolysis, our approach uses natural gas as an anode d...

Thermochemical energy conversion based on high-temperature materials is a third approach and generally employs two step processes with oxygen release (i.e., a reduction reaction) at high temperature and chemical water splitting at lower temperatures. [ 13–17 ] Interestingly, only very few activities aim at a combination of high temperatures and photoelectrochemical energy storage. In a theoreti...

Co-electrolysis of carbon dioxide and steam has been shown to be an efficient way to produce syngas, however further optimisation requires detailed understanding of the complex reactions, transport processes and degradation mechanisms occurring in the solid oxide cell (SOC) during operation. Whilst electrochemical measurements are currently conducted in situ, many analytical techniques can only...

Fuel electrode supported microtubular solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) fabricated at ICMA have been characterized in both solid oxide steam electrolyser (SOEC) and fuel cell modes. The cells consists of a fuel electrode supporting tube of Ni/YSZ with 40% porosity, 400 μm thickness, 2.4 mm diameter and 100-150 mm length, a 15 m thick YSZ electrolyte and a 50vol% LSM/YSZ composite air electrode of...

Introduction The use of hydrogen as a clean and sustainable fuel depends on an efficient and inexpensive method of producing the gas. Currently, most hydrogen is produced from steam reformation with hydrocarbons, where water splitting (hydrolysis) is performed by reacting steam to carbon-based fuels. To avoid the use of hydrocarbons and greenhouse gas emissions, hydrolysis is also possible thro...