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DOE OSTI · 1882509

Red-Ox Robust SOFC Stacks for Affordable, Reliable Distributed Generation Power Systems

Blackburn, Bryan M.·Deaconu, Stelu·Wang, Lei·Doherty, Kevin·Li, Yue
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Abstract

While SOFC systems are expected to operate reliably and with limited degradation in steady state or transient performance, SOFC stacks may ultimately fail due to the loss of structural integrity of one or several of the cells as a result of the weakening of the materials and interfaces due to physico-chemical changes that occur during continuous operation as a result of plastic and creep deformations, modification of the temperature profile, and/or degradation of the electrochemical performance of the cells. Degradation mechanisms originating from the cell components include coarsening of the microstructure over time; decomposition of materials; chemical reaction of electrode materials with electrolyte at the interface; delamination from each other; and for the anode, coking and sulfur poisoning. Of all the reliability issues that may occur for SOFCs, the main limitation for Ni-based cermet anodes (e.g., NiO-YSZ) is the poor stability during reduction-oxidation (red-ox) cycling. This project was aimed at the development of ceramic anode SOFCs based on SFCM (SrFe0.2Co0.4Mo0.4O3), which is a conductive perovskite that is red-ox stable. Additionally, the project involved the development of a red-ox robust stack. Scale up of SFCM-based cells to a large format (10 cm by 10 cm) cell size was achieved as well as a maximum power density of 0.9 W/cm 2 at 600 °C (>0.6 W/cm 2 at 0.6 V). Up to a 10-cell stack was successfully assembled and demonstrated, and cells showed similar performance in reformed, pipeline natural gas as in hydrogen. Finally, a 3-cell stack was red-ox cycled without degradation for 40 cycles at ~600 °C.

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03 NATURAL GAS08 HYDROGEN20 FOSSIL-FUELED POWER PLANTS30 DIRECT ENERGY CONVERSION36 MATERIALS SCIENCE37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY42 ENGINEERINGceramic anodedistributed generationred-ox cyclingreduction-oxidation stablereformingsolid oxide fuel cellstack, natural gas

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Blackburn, Bryan M., Deaconu, Stelu, Wang, Lei, Doherty, Kevin, Li, Yue. 2022-08-21. Red-Ox Robust SOFC Stacks for Affordable, Reliable Distributed Generation Power Systems. https://doi.org/10.2172/1882509

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