An alternative and promising chemistry for rSOCs is that one involving ammonia conversion to hydrogen and nitrogen. Ammonia has great potential as hydrogen carrier, due to its higher volumetric density with respect to hydrogen itself, and it can be directly fed to SOFCs. It has been demonstrated that ammonia-fed SOFCs operate through successive ammonia decomposition and hydrogen oxidation:
Ammonia decomposition has been demonstrated to be slightly more efficient than simple hydrogen oxidation, confirming the great potential of ammonia as a fuel other than an energy carrier.
Unfortunately, ammonia cannot be directly synthesized on the fuel electrode of a rSOC, because the equilibrium reaction
is completely shifted towards the left at their higher than 600°C working temperature. For this reason, for clean ammonia production, hydrogen production via electrolysis must be coupled with nitrogen production from air with hydrogen oxidation and subsequent water separation.