New Material for SOFCs Reduces Operating Temperature

Toto LTD, Japan has announced that it has developed a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack that operates at 500 C, which is much lower than conventional SOFC stacks that typically operate in the 750 - 1000 C range.  The development is made possible through the use of ceramic materials that have not previously been used in fuel cells.   For mobile operations this reduces weight and size due to lesser amounts of heat insulation being required.  The cell is tubular shaped which can be more efficiently designed to be resistant to thermal stress than a planer arrangement.  Start up time is about 5 minutes. The output power is 500 W to 1000 W.  Specific applications anticipated are motor-driven chairs, motor-assist bicycles, etc.

In the newly developed SOFC stack, a reaction control layer is placed between the electrolyte and the fuel electrode to reduce the internal resistance, and to stabilize the low-temperature operation characteristic. To increase the integration density and the start-up time, the fuel electrode is molded to be a tubular member of 5mm in diameter. The outer surface of the fuel electrode is covered with the electrolyte and the air electrode.  Materials used are:

• Air electrode: lanthanum cobalt ceramics
• Electrolyte: lanthanum gallate ceramics
• Fuel Electrode: compound of nickel and zirconia ceramics
• Reaction control layer: ceria ceramics

Reference:  World's First SOFC Stack Operable at 500 Degrees Celsius, Fuel Cell Japan, 10/23-10/31/2005, Item 40-6

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Comments

[hendi saryanto]

Iam a student at Tun Hussein Onn University of malaysia, i wont to know how to buy the fuel cell stack..

[husky air compressor]

I'm working on a green house project. I'm really interested by this New Material for SOFCs Reduces Operating Temperature.
thanks a lot!
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