Dynamic-temperature operation of metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract

A dynamic-temperature operation strategy is proposed for SOFC systems, in which the cell temperature varies rapidly to match the SOFC stack power output to a dynamic load requirement. It is anticipated that this operation strategy may have benefits for system efficiency, size, and cost for applications with dynamic power load. Metal-supported SOFCs (MS-SOFCs) are operated continuously at 0.7 V while the temperature is varied rapidly between 675 and 800°C or 670 and 720°C. During the initial thermal excursion, the current density increases from 0.82 to 1.95 A cm-2 in 6.6 min for 675 to 800°C, and from 1.0 to 1.63 A cm-2 in 5.4 min for 670 to 720°C. Cells are subjected to continuous dynamic temperature operation for more than 100 cycles. Metal-supported; SOFC; dynamic temperature; thermal cycling

Progress in durability of metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells with infiltrated electrodes

“…Precursor mixtures of metal nitrates (Sigma Aldrich) were prepared with the intended final stoichiometric composition. A surfactant, Triton-X 100 (Sigma Aldrich) with loading of 0.3 g per 2 g of resulting catalyst was added to metal 6 nitrates and dissolved in 20 to 100 wt% (vs. catalyst) of water. More detailed description can be found in our previous report [12].…”

“…The symmetric-architecture metal supported solid oxide fuel cells (MS-SOFCs) developed at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL) [1][2][3], with thin ceramic backbones and electrolyte layer sandwiched between lowcost stainless steel supports, provide a number of advantages over allceramic SOFCs. These advantages include mechanical ruggedness, excellent tolerance to thermal [4] and redox cycling (critical in cases of disruption, intermittent fuel supply [5], or thermal fluctuations following load changes) 2 [6], and extremely fast start-up capability [2,[7][8][9][10][11]. Furthermore, the majority of the cell is an inexpensive FeCr-based ferritic stainless steel and only a single co-sintering step is required, which can significantly reduce the materials and fabrication cost.…”

Metal‐Supported Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell with Significantly Enhanced Catalysis

“…These challenges include oxidation of the metal support, contamination of the active materials with Cr and Si from the metal support, and long‐term mechanical evolution including creep. Our group has developed symmetric structure MS‐SOFC with infiltrated catalysts on both electrodes and demonstrated high performance, rapid thermal cycling, and dynamic‐temperature operation of the cells . Nielsen et al from Technical University of Denmark adopted a relatively thin metal support with thickness of 175 μm and demonstrated high cell performance .…”

“…Our group has developed symmetric structure MS-SOFC with infiltrated catalysts on both electrodes and demonstrated high performance, [47] rapid thermal cycling, [48,49] and dynamic-temperature operation of the cells. [47,48,50] Nielsen et al…”

Assessment of co-sintering as a fabrication approach for metal-supported proton-conducting solid oxide cells

“…MS-SOFCs promise high performance provided by the active ceramic layers, and excellent mechanical properties and low materials cost derived from the metal support. In contrast to conventional all-ceramic SOFCs, MS-SOFCs offer further operational advantages including; mechanical ruggedness; tolerance to very rapid thermal cycling both during start-up and variable operation [16,17]; and tolerance to oxidation of the fuel catalyst, which occurs during high fuel utilization, intermittent fuel use, or unexpected loss of fuel supply (i.e. due to failure in the fuel delivery subsystem) [18,19].…”