High performance anode for direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells

R&D Focus Areas:
Ammonia, Separation materials and technologies

Lead Organisation:
The University of Queensland

Partners
Nanjing Tech University

Status:
Active

Start date:
July 2020

Completion date:
June 2023

Key contacts:
Professor John Zhu: z.zhu@uq.edu.au

Funding:
AUD$410,000 – Australian Research Council (Discovery Project)

Project total cost:
AUD$410,000 + AUD$285,000 in-kind contribution

Project summary description:
Solid oxide fuel cells are a clean energy generation device with very high energy efficiency, and if with hydrogen as fuel, the emission is zero. However, the utilisation of hydrogen is limited by on-board storage.

Ammonia is a promising hydrogen carrier and can be directly fed to solid oxide fuel cells without fuel storage problem, and the products are just hydrogen and nitrogen. For direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells, the key challenge is the anode. This project aims to develop a high performance anode for direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells with both high activity and high stability at low temperature (below 600 degree C), thus addressing a key issue to make the direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cells commercially viable.

Related publications and key links:
Muhammad Shirjeel Khan, Yohei Miura, Yosuke Fukuyama, Shuai Gao, Zhonghua Zhu, Methane internal steam reforming in solid oxide fuel cells at intermediate temperatures, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy, V47, 13969-13979 (2022).

Higher degree studies supported:
One PhD student is supported by this project

 

June 2022