Abstract
The production of C2 hydrocarbons and electricity through oxidative coupling of methane in an SOFC reactor operated at maximum power at load was simulated. La0.85Sr0.15MnO3/8 mol%Y2O3-ZrO2/La1.8Al0.2O3 (abbreviated as LSM/YSZ/LaAlO) were used as a cathode, electrolyte and an anode, respectively. A plug flow reactor model (PFRM) was developed using kinetic parameters of the oxidative coupling of methane and the oxygen permeability through LSM/YSZ/LaAlO from our previous works. Good agreements of power generation between experimental and simulation results were obtained. The effect of operating conditions; i.e., operating temperature, methane feed flow rate and concentration on the anode, oxygen concentrations on the cathode, and operating pressure were investigated. Methane conversion and C2 selectivity increase with increasing operating temperature. In our system, most of C2 production is ethylene, which is more favored than ethane. Methane conversion decreases with increasing methane feed flow rate while C2 selectivity slightly increases. No effort on air purification is required in the SOFC system. Higher methane feed concentrations on the anode give higher power. The reactor performance increases at higher pressures. The results suggest that our SOFC system is an excellent reactor for C2 production where electric power is generated simultaneously.
