Sulphur-Tolerant Anode for MCFC Fed with Biogas

Nowadays renewable energy sources represent an important solution to environmental impact and socioeconomic problems because they promote the sustainable development and the energy security. Among renewable energy sources, biomass is the most interesting source because it is possible to produce many useful fuels from biomass and because waste-to-energy conversion is a useful alternative way for waste management. The main drawback is that biomass has low energy content. Coupling biomass with fuel cells it possible to convert the chemical energy stored in biomass to electricity with high efficient. The biofuels useful for fuel cell are gaseous such as biogas. The main advantage to use biogas as fuel for high temperature fuel cell is that reformed methane and carbon monoxide are fuels and carbon dioxide is a diluent. In the other hand, the main drawback is that sulphur compounds, which are the most important biogas impurities, react with cell components compromising the cell performance. The aim of this work is developing an alternative components for molten carbonate fuel cell fed with biogas in order to improve the tolerance towards sulphur compound impurities and the regeneration capacity of the cell. In particular we have prepared and tested an oxide cermet material as anode. The cermet is a Nickel-Chromium alloy covered with a tin film of Ceria prepared with a sol-gel process.