One possible solution of combating issues posed by climate change is the use of the High Temperature (HT) Polymer Electrolyte Membrane (PEM) Fuel Cell (FC) in some applications. The typical HT-PEMFC operating temperatures are in the range of 100e200 o C which allows for co-generation of heat and power, high tolerance to fuel impurities and simpler system design. This paper reviews the current literature concerning the HT-PEMFC, ranging from cell materials to stack and stack testing. Only acid doped PBI membranes meet the US DOE (Department of Energy) targets for high temperature membranes operating under no humidification on both anode and cathode sides (barring the durability). This eliminates the stringent requirement for humidity however, they have many potential drawbacks including increased degradation, leaching of acid and incompatibility with current state-of-the-art fuel cell materials. In this type of fuel cell, the choice of membrane material determines the other fuel cell component material composition, for example when using an acid doped system, the flow field plate material must be carefully selected to take into account the advanced degradation. Novel research is required in all aspects of the fuel cell components in order to ensure that they meet stringent durability requirements for mobile applications.

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Simulated biogas with 0.5 CO2 to CH4 ratio was used to fuel NiYSZ-based anode supported SOFC at 750oC for 22 hours. Operation on biogas was carried out after 26 hours stabilization on H2. Sn doping by infiltration technique on NiYSZ anode surface produced 4.5 times higher cell electrical performance on biogas compared to the performance of un-doped NiYSZ cell. SnNiYSZ cell showed no carbon deposited while NiYSZ cell showed 0.17mg carbon/cm2 cell. This paper presents cell electrical performance data supported by impedance spectra and mass spectra of fuel cell outlet gases. The findings in this paper may bring efforts for making biogas fuelled SOFC closer to being operable.

This paper analyzes the possibilities for application of micro-tubular SOFC (mSOFC) with partial oxidation catalyst (CPOX) located at the cell inlet for direct utilization of hydrocarbons. Applied system reduced coke deposition without integration into the cell structure and allowed application of traditional Ni:zirconia cermet for direct hydrocarbons utilization. The key problem in the proposed Microtubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (mSOFC) system is where the part of the cell is outside of the hot zone. This is caused by the temperature distribution (TD). Despite the good resistance to thermal shock, the long-term operation with unequal TD can cause cell damage. The TD was measured along and across the cell (internally and externally) under different operating conditions. H 2 and CH 4 were used as fuels in the first instance. Different mixtures of fuel and air and different forms of the catalyst were tested for the CPOX of hydrocarbons. Different forms/geometries of the catalyst were tested to optimize the system design. The paper mainly focuses on solving problems with temperature distribution along and across the mSOFC cell.

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