Implementation of 2nd generation SOFC anodes

Completed

Hydrogen and Fuel Cells(Fuel Cells)

Basic and strategic applied research
Applied Research and Development

PHYSICAL SCIENCES AND MATHEMATICS (Chemistry)
ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY

Not Cross-cutting

Professor JTS Irvine
University of St Andrews

3

Carbon Trust

01 April 2004

31 March 2006

24 months

£128,021

Scotland

Professor JTS Irvine, University of St Andrews

Project Contact, Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems Ltd

To evaluate possible substitutes or composites that might significantly enhance electrode properties then apply these anodes to Rolls-Royce format and test and evaluate performance characteristics.

Fuel cells offer a clean means of converting chemical energy to electrical energy at extremely high efficiencies. High temperature fuel cells, especially solid oxide (SOFC), are successfully being developed to produce this energy because they are capable of overcoming problems of poisoning by carbon monoxide and are therefore much more tolerant of the hydrocarbon fuels that are so widely accessible in the current energy economy. This project brings together the remarkable advances in anode material recently achieved at St Andrews with the flexibility of the Rolls-Royce SOFC concept. The recently reported St Andrews anode is the first novel anode material to offer sufficiently good electrode properties to enable its use in place of nickel. Until now SOFCs have had limited use on hydrocarbon fuels because of carbon buildup due to catalytic cracking, intolerance of sulphur compounds and difficulties caused by accidental oxidation of the electrode. Such concerns have led to a very active international search for second generation anodes for SOFCs, of which the St Andrews anode is a leading example, to replace the currently used nickel zirconia cements. The programme of work consists of developing and optimising the anode composition followed by performance and stability testing. This process will select a few of the best compositions for further study, which will be screen-printed onto Rolls-Royce substrates and chemically and microstructurally evaluated. Having passed thistest seven cell arrays will be made and tested using the Rolls-Royce standard test system. Finally, the data from these tests will be correlated and decisions made about scale-up of the process

01/01/07