Utilization of Glycerol and its Derivatives in a Nickel‐Based SOFC

Abstract

To address pressures associated with the increasing demand for the use of renewable liquid fuels, production of biodiesel has increased significantly resulting in a concomitant increase in glycerol production. A potential technology which has been examined in this study for utilising this potential waste product is to consider glycerol as well as its decomposition products, as fuels for use in a solid oxide fuel cell. Common glycerol derivatives, acrolein and allyl alcohol, have been examined as feeds, where it was found that allyl alcohol partially undergoes direct oxidation through interaction of the hydroxyl functional group, while the acrolein deactivates the anode through rapid carbon deposition. Additionally, it was shown that glycerol can be used as a fuel directly, with over 90 hours operation without cell deactivation, attributed to its’ highly oxygenated nature through multiple hydroxyl groups interacting with the catalytic anode, resulting in direct oxidation of the glycerol. It was also found that the introduction of salt contaminants typically found as a result of industrial biodiesel synthesis, such as NaCl, resulted in catalyst deactivation due to the formation of undesirable species, in this instance surface NiCl2.