Hydrogen is seen as a promising candidate in the search for an alternative to fossil hydrocarbon fuels. It can be obtained from different energy sources, such as natural gas (the main current production of hydrogen), coal or renewable energies. Another way of production of H2 is water or steam electrolysis. This way allows a large modularity. Hydrogen could be produced at a large-scale plant, or at a refuelling station.
A research program is under way at the CEA/Le Ripault to select suitable electrode and electrolyte materials for Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells, working at high temperatures. In a first step, commercial cells used in Solid Oxide Fuel Cell applications were tested (electrolyte-supported and electrode-supported). The first results obtained on an Indec electrolyte-supported cell Ni-GDC (40µm)/ YSZ (140µm) / LSM (60µm) will be presented. At 900°C, a production of 2.34 Nml/min.cm² of H2 was reached with the introduction of a mixture H2O/H2 (90-10%) at 1,32 V (exothermic operation). The evolution of the production of H2 according different parameters such as H2O/H2 ratio, nitrogen dilution, water utilisation and working temperature were also investigated. The performances decreased rapidly with the temperature reduction and water utilisation (14 l/h of H2 with 56% of water utilisation and 11,7 l/h of H2 with 77% of water utilisation). However, the hydrogen production increased with nitrogen dilution and with H2O/H2 ratio introduced. These particularly promising results will be completed by the study of other cell materials, and the ageing process of these materials under high water partial pressure.