Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are a rapidly emerging energy technology for a low carbon world, providing high efficiency, potential to use carbonaceous fuels, and compatibility with carbon capture and storage. However, current state-of-the-art materials have low tolerance to sulfur, a common contaminant of many fuels, and are vulnerable to deactivation due to carbon deposition when using carbon-containing compounds. In this review, we first study the theoretical basis behind carbon and sulfur poisoning, before examining the strategies toward carbon and sulfur tolerance used so far in the SOFC literature. We then study the more extensive relevant heterogeneous catalysis literature for strategies and materials which could be incorporated into carbon and sulfur tolerant fuel cells.

Carbon formation and sintering remain the main culprits regarding catalyst deactivation in the dry and bireforming\ud of methane reactions (DRM and BRM, respectively). Nickel based catalysts (10 wt.%) supported on\ud alumina (Al2O3) have shown no exception in this study, but can be improved by the addition of tin and ceria. The\ud effect of two different Sn loadings on this base have been examined for the DRM reaction over 20 h, before\ud selecting the most appropriate Sn/Ni ratio and promoting the alumina base with 20 wt.% of CeO2. This catalyst\ud then underwent activity measurements over a range of temperatures and space velocities, before undergoing\ud experimentation in BRM. It not only showed good levels of conversions for DRM, but exhibited stable conversions\ud towards BRM, reaching an equilibrium H2/CO product ratio in the process. In fact, this work reveals how\ud multicomponent Ni catalysts can be effectively utilised to produce flexible syngas streams from CO2/CH4 mixtures\ud as an efficient route for CO2 utilisation.Peer reviewe

Rational design of low‐cost and efficient transition‐metal catalysts for low‐temperature CO₂ activation is significant and poses great challenges. Herein, a strategy via regulating the local electron density of active sites is developed to boost CO₂ methanation that normally requires >350 °C for commercial Ni catalysts. An optimal Ni/ZrO₂ catalyst affords an excellent low‐temperature performance hitherto, with a CO₂ conversion of 84.0 %, CH₄ selectivity of 98.6 % even at 230 °C and GHSV of 12,000 mL g⁻¹ h⁻¹ for 106 h, reflecting one of the best CO₂ methanation performance to date on Ni‐based catalysts. Combined a series of in situ spectroscopic characterization studies reveal that re‐constructing monoclinic‐ZrO₂ supported Ni species with abundant oxygen vacancies can facilitate CO₂ activation, owing to the enhanced local electron density of Ni induced by the strong metal‐support interactions. These findings might be of great aid for construction of robust catalysts with an enhanced performance for CO₂ emission abatement and beyond.

This paper evidences the viability of chemical recycling of CO2 via reverse water-gas shift reaction using advanced heterogeneous catalysts. In particular, we have developed a multicomponent Fe-Cu-Cs/Al2O3 catalyst able to reach high levels of CO2 conversions and complete selectivity to CO at various reaction conditions (temperature and space velocities). In addition, to the excellent activity, the novel-Cs doped catalyst is fairly stable for continuous operation which suggests its viability for deeper studies in the reverse water-gas shift reaction. The catalytic activity and selectivity of this new material have been carefully compared to that of Fe/Al2O3, Fe-Cu/Al2O3 and Fe-Cs/Al2O3 in order to understand each active component’s contribution to the catalyst’s performance. This comparison provides some clues to explain the superiority of the multicomponent Fe-Cu-Cs/Al2O3 catalys