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The operation of SOFCs on biomass-derived fuels demands an intrinsic tolerance of the cells towards biogenic contaminants like tars. In order to develop more robust cells, the behaviour of state-of-the-art Ni/YSZ anode supported cells at 700 °C in presence of naphthalene as model tar was extensively studied. As reported in literature naphthalene blocks the active sites of nickel catalysts and therefore hinders the utilisation of methane and carbon monoxide in the fuel gas. This study shows that the loss in performance is greater than only the contribution of this inertisation of CH4 and CO and that the behaviour of the cell voltage is similar to the poisoning with H2S. We also found that the operation temperature is a major parameter when tolerance limits for naphthalene have to be defined. The analysis of electrical impedance data helped to understand the underlying poisoning processes.

In the context of energy transition and climate change, a combination of highly efficient modern solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) and thermo‐chemical conversion of biogenic residues could complement other intermittent renewable sources such as wind and solar. In order to reduce required gas cleaning efforts and to increase the process efficiency, the influence of hydrocarbons on SOFC performance is experimentally investigated in this study. For the first time, the operation of Ni/YSZ anode‐supported cells in Jülich F10 stacks is performed with pre‐reformed and with bio‐syngas containing full hydrocarbon content at realistic current densities. Sulfur and other impurities were removed in both cases. No degradation could be observed within normal operation on clean gas. With the tar reformer bypassed, the pressure drop over the stack increased due to severe carbon deposition on the anode substrate and the nickel current collector mesh inside the SOFC stack, so that operation had to be terminated after five hours. This behavior is different from single‐cell tests, where electrochemical degradation is the limiting factor. The results show that improvements are not only necessary for cell materials and that future research must also consider other stack components.

We report on state-of-the-art JÜLICH (Forschungszentrum Jülich) stack with anode-supported solid oxide fuel cells (AS-SOFCs) that have been tested in bio-syngas derived from wood pellets. The sulfur and chlorine were removed after gasification, but the tars were not reformed in the bio-syngas to study the influence of these tars on the degradation of SOFC stack. The total tar content during test was 3.5 g/Nm 3 including benzene, toluene, phenol, m-cresol, naphthalene, and minor traces of undefined tars. The test result shows considerable performance degradation in tar-contaminated syngas. Moreover, the test was stopped after 5 hours of operation due to an increase of the pressure drop in the stack. A post-test analysis was carried out, and heavy carbon deposition was found at the cell anode-support surface and the Ni mesh current collector. Carbon was identified by SEM as numerous carbon fibers. The change of support microstructure was also observed near and under the carbon deposition area, and the dusting of Ni metal was observed in the support and Ni mesh current collector.