The Japan Institute of Industrial Technology announced last week that the researcher and his counterpart in the US have developed a miniature solid oxide fuel cell. By adding a special catalyst layer, the operating temperature of the battery can be greatly reduced.
The energy conversion efficiency of a solid oxide fuel cell is the highest in a fuel cell, but this battery has a high operating temperature and a large volume, and is only suitable for a large, fixed power source. At present, the demand for small and portable power supplies is growing rapidly. It is urgent to develop miniature solid oxide fuel cells. This requires the use of hydrocarbon compounds as fuel. Under the prior art conditions, hydrocarbon compounds are difficult to directly use for power generation in environments below 600°C. Therefore, reducing the operating temperature of the fuel cell is an urgent problem to be solved. The new technology is to form a nanometer-size ceria layer on the inner wall of a tubular miniature solid oxide fuel cell as a reforming catalyst layer of a fuel cell, which can enable a hydrocarbon fuel cell to generate electricity at a relatively low temperature of 450°C.