Fuel Cells Operating at 200 to 500 Celsius: Lessons Learned from the ARPA-E REBELS Program

摘要

The Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) launched the Reliable Electricity Based on Electrochemical Systems (REBELS) program in 2014 to pursue alternate fuel cell materials and operating conditions that could enable system cost reductions and new electrochemical functionality. The program objective of a current density of 200 mA/cm~2 at 0.78 V and 500°C on methane fuel in a button cell was achieved. Several teams demonstrated thousands of hours of operation on internally-reformed methane fuel at 500°C without coking, both with and without a significant steam co-feed. Fuel cells with charge storage functionality in or near the anode showed an improved response to variations in current density, with a lower voltage decrease at higher fuel utilization. Progress was also made on using fuel cells to convert methane to liquid fuels. Further research is needed to evaluate whether stacks in this temperature range possess the appropriate combination of performance and cost to accelerate the commercialization of high efficiency fuel cells.