Methane oxidation at redox stable fuel cell electrode La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Mn0.5O(3-delta)

Because of its widespread availability, natural gas is the most important fuel for early application of stationary fuel cells, and furthermore, methane containing biogases are one of the most promising renewable energy alternatives; thus, it is very important to be able to efficiently utilize methane in fuel cells. Typically, external steam reforming is applied to allow methane utilization in high temperature fuel cells; however, direct oxidation will provide a much better solution. Recently, we reported good electrochemical performance for an oxide anode La0.75Sr0.25Cr0.5Mn0.5O3 (LSCM) in low moisture (3% H2O) H2 and CH4 fuels without significant coking in CH4. Here, we investigate the catalytic activity of this oxide with respect to its ability to utilize methane. This oxide is found to exhibit fairly low reforming activity for both H2O and CO2 reforming but is active for methane oxidation. LSCM is found to be a full oxidation catalyst rather than a partial oxidation catalyst as CO2 production dominates CO production even in CH4-rich CH4/O2 mixtures. X-ray adsorption spectroscopy was utilized to confirm that Mn was the redox active species, clearly demonstrating that this material has the oxidation catalytic behavior that might be expected from a Mn perovskite and that the Cr ion is only present to ensure stability under fuel atmospheres.