Cost-Effective Single Step Cofiring Process for Manufacturing Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Using HSC™ Anode

Abstract

The anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was fabricated by a cost-effective single step cofiring process using high shear compaction (HSC)™ anode substrate. The HSC™ process is a novel ceramic tape fabrication technique, which offers advantages in low-cost and high-volume production of the anode substrates over the conventional tape forming processes. The cell was comprised of a porous HSC™ Ni+8 mol % yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) anode substrate, a porous Ni+YSZ anode barrier layer, a porous and fine-grained Ni+YSZ anode active layer, a dense YSZ electrolyte, a porous and fine-grained Ca-doped LaMnO3(LCM)+YSZ composite cathode active layer, and a porous LCM cathode current collector layer. The fabrication process involved wet powder spraying of the anode barrier layer over the HSC™ anode substrate followed by screen-printing of the remaining component layers. The cell was then cofired at 1340°C for 2 h. The microstructure and the open circuit voltage of the cell confirmed that the cell was crack-free and leak-tight. The cofired cell showed a stable and acceptable electrochemical performance at 800°C under humidified hydrogen (3–60% H2O) as fuel and air as oxidant. The anode active layer with finer and less porous microstructure increased the triple phase boundary length and improved cell performance under conditions that simulated higher fuel utilization. The material system and fabrication process presented in this work offers great advantage in low-cost and high-volume production of SOFCs, and it can be the basis for scale-up and successful commercialization of the SOFC technology.

A Theoretical Study on Reversible Solid Oxide Cells as Key Enablers of Cyclic Conversion between Electrical Energy and Fuel

“…Other major challenges include manufacturing costs, and stack design and assemblage. Regarding manufacturing costs, the single-step co-firing process has become an alternative that reduces the production steps and overall energy consumption [96][97][98]. Additionally, for composite electrodes, this technique increases porosity and reduces ASR as compared to mechanically mixed composites.…”

Preparing Li‐garnet electrodes with engineered structures by phase inversion and high shear compaction processes

“…29,30 The physics of resin flow into a mold under pressure is similar to the seepage problem and so similar approaches have been used also to model the flow of resin into a mold containing fiber mats. 23,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] The models are used in these cases to determine the resin flow front and mold filling times corresponding to different infiltration conditions.…”

“…29,30 The physics of resin under pressure is similar to the seepage pr lar approaches have been used also to mod into a mold containing fiber mats. 23,[31][32][33][34][35][36][37][38] T in these cases to determine the resin flow ing times corresponding to different infilt Preceramic polycarbosilane polymers as precursors to make ceramic fibers 10,3 trix. [7][8][9]40,41 The chemical and volume ch pany ceramization of the polymer during documented in several studies.…”

“…This process is commonly used in manufacturing production of ceramic substrates due to its low cost, high production throughput and good control of shrinkage. 36,37 In this work, LLZO scaffold electrodes with engineered structures were fabricated by PI and HSC processes, and incorporated into bi-layer architectures. HSC has not been reported previously to fabricate battery components.…”

Effect of the anode microstructure on the enhanced performance of solid oxide fuel cells

“…Although various methods have been employed for the fabrication of planar SOFCs, tape casting of both anode and electrolyte layers, lamination of tapes prior to sintering and screen printing of the cathode layer has been the most common production route [41,42]. Incorporation of pore former particles has been an effective technique to produce controlled porosity in the anode microstructures since the particles leave pores with adjustable properties as the green ceramic is introduced to elevated temperatures for sintering [19,43].…”