Continuous conversion of biomass wastes in a La_0.75Sr_0.25Cr_0.5Mn_0.5O_3-δ based carbon-air battery

In this study, a carbon-air battery based on a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is demonstrated to continuously generate electric power through a direct oxidation of the biomass wastes. Due to inevitable poisoning gases such as H₂S, SO₂, CO₂ in wastes, more stable La_0.75Sr_0.25Cr_0.5Mn_0.5O_3-δ (LSCM) instead of Ni is used as the anode material for SOFC. Nano- and/or micro-particles of LSCM are prepared onto a 3D porous yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) scaffold via an infiltration process, in which YSZ backbone provides rich pathways for O^2- which can remedy the major defect of the LSCM, negligible O^2- conductivity, and thus expanding the triple-phase boundary (TPB) to the whole anode. When falling leaves are tucked into the anode chamber, an attractive performance of 330 mW cm^-2 can be reached for the battery at 800 °C, which is among the best in the published open literature. There is no visible degradation in cell performance during stability-test for 1000 min. This work provides a novel waste fed SOFC system that has a wide range of application potentials due to its unique advantages of low cost, low emission and high efficiency.