Characterization of a 100 W SOFC stack fed by carbon monoxide rich fuels Daniele Penchini*, Giovanni Cinti, Gabriele Discepoli, Elena Sisani, Umberto Desideri University of Perugia, Department of Industrial Engineering, Via G. Duranti 67, Perugia, Italy article info Article history: Received 19 March 2012 Received in revised form 31 August 2012 Accepted 10 September 2012 Available online xxx Keywords: Solid oxide fuel cell Carbon monoxide Boudouard reaction Carbon deposition Biogas Landfill gas abstract This paper presents the evaluation of the performance of a 100 W Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) stack with CO rich fuels as anode gas. The study aims at measuring the Open Circuit Voltage (OCV) and the Area Specific Resistance (ASR) when the amount of CO in the anode flow varies from 0 to 40% in volume. At the same time, the FCTestQA procedures were applied and evaluated as methodology for Solid Oxide Fuel Cell testing. The theoretical OCV was measured considering both H 2 and CO oxidation and the water gas shift reaction. The OCV values, as a function of CO concentration, resulted closely related to theoretical ones and the ASR value, calculated for different mixtures of fuel, did not change with anode gas composition and it seemed to be a function of the temperature and the degra- dation of the materials only. Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction The rapid growth in terms of efficiency and performance of the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology in recent years has made SOFCs to be one of the possible solutions for the utili- zation of different types of fuels obtained from either fossil or renewable energy sources. Several processes, such as waste incineration, anaerobic digestion, biomass gasification or pyrolysis, produce gases that can be efficiently used as fuels in SOFC systems. SOFCs, owing to their operating conditions, may run with standard high quality fuels such as hydrogen and natural gas as well as with waste derived gases, such as biogas or landfill gas, or with gaseous products of gasification and pyrolysis of any solid fuels, ranging from coal to biomass and wastes [1]. Currently, these types of gases are used in internal combustion engines and in gas turbines. However, several technical and environmental problems are coming out due to combustion of unconventional substances, which require additional research and development efforts, to the presence of impurities, which may damage the hot and cold parts of the engines and turbines, and to the difficulties of treating and cleaning up the gas. Moreover, burning fuels with high concentrations of H 2 requires significant modifications in the combustion chamber of gas turbines [2]. Some of those problems can be partially mitigated using SOFCs, where the fuel conversion is not based on a combus- tion process. Theoretical and experimental studies about this applica- tion [3e6] were carried out to demonstrate the technical feasibility of the use of unconventional and waste derived gaseous fuels in high temperature fuel cells. Such studies confirmed and highlighted good opportunities for SOFCs using CO-rich gas mixtures as fuel. * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ39 075 5853991. E-mail address: daniele.penchini@gmail.com (D. Penchini). Available online at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy xxx (2012) 1 e7 Please cite this article in press as: Penchini D, et al., Characterization of a 100 W SOFC stack fed by carbon monoxide rich fuels, International Journal of Hydrogen Energy (2012), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.060 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijhydene.2012.09.060