Development of High Performance Micro-Tubular SOFCs by AIST
In recent years in aiming to achieve high power generation efficiency and at the same time to greatly reduce CO2 emissions numerous type of fuel cells have been developed. One such fuel cells are SOFCs which comprised of ceramic components exhibiting the highest efficiency. Since SOFCs are operated at high temperatures of between 800 to 1000 degrees Celsius, exhaust heat can be used for fuel reforming as well as hot water storage resulting in overall high energy efficiency of the system. However, the high temperature operability of SOFCs has limited their application to power generation systems where the thermal cycle and load variation can be kept small. Based on this, in order to expand the use of SOFCs in other applications they need to be made so they can be used for rapid start-and stop operation at temperatures below 650 degrees Celsius, which are desirable for such applications as domestic dispersed power sources, power sources for mobile electronic devices, and APUs in automobiles. In response to this need AIST (Advanced Industrial Science and Technology) in Japan has developed a micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell integrated compact modules which is operable at low temperatures and it is capable of generating powers of between 50 to 200W. The new SOFC features a power generation efficiency of over 40% utilizing 90 cells module. The 200W class module was constructed through assembly of eight integrated unit, paving the way for basic fabrication and evaluation techniques for larger modules capable of generating power of up to several hundred watts. In this development ,micro-tubular SOFCs which hare inherently capable of rapid start-and-stop operation are highly integrated. The SOFC’s electrolyte was made of gadolinia-doped ceria and scandia-stabilizing zirconia, both with excellent ion-conducting characteristic. The module was assembled using multiple integrated units of the 15 to 30W class (3 in parallel, 9-15 in series) comprising components with excellent size accuracy in order to meet a target power output. In making of 50W class module, two integrated units, each consisting of 3 micro-tubular SOFCs in parallel and 15 in series, are connected in parallel (the module contains 90 cells). the degree of integration per unit volume (i.e electrode area) in the SOFC modules which has been developed in this research is the highest level, and the developed technique in this research can be applied in developing smaller and more powerful energy sources.
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