Solid oxide electrochemical reactor science.

Abstract

This LDRD involved a collaboration between Sandia and the Colorado School of Mines (CSM) ins solid-oxide electrochemical reactors targeted at solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOEC), which are the reverse of solid-oxide fuel cells (SOFC). SOECs complement Sandia's efforts in thermochemical production of alternative fuels. An SOEC technology would co-electrolyze carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) with steam at temperatures around 800 ºC to form synthesis gas (H 2 and CO), which forms the building blocks for a petrochemical substitutes that can be used to power vehicles or in distributed energy platforms. The effort described here concentrates on research concerning catalytic chemistry, charge-transfer chemistry, and optimal cell-architecture. technical scope included computational modeling, materials development, and experimental evaluation. The project engaged the Colorado Fuel Cell Center at CSM through the support of a graduate student (Connor Moyer) at CSM and his advisors (Profs. Robert Kee and Neal Sullivan) in collaboration with Sandia. 4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTSThis report is based largely upon the thesis written by Connor Moyer for his degree of Master of Science (Engineering) at Colorado School of Mines, which this LDRD helped fund. This project also leveraged modeling results from Dr. Huayang Zhu at Colorado School of Mines, who was primarily funded by the Office of Naval Research via an RTC grant (N00014-05-1-03339).5