• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.73-80
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• 2010

A solid oxide fuel cells(SOFC) is a clean energy technology which directly converts chemical energy to electric energy. When the SOFC is used in cogeneration then the efficiency can reach higher than 80%. Also, it has flexibility in using various fuels like natural gases and bio gases, so it has an advantage over polymer electrolyte membrane fuel cells in terms of fuel selection. A typical cathode material of the SOFC in conjunction with yttria stabilized zirconia(YSZ) electrolyte is still Sr-doped $LaMnO_3$(LSM). Recently, application of mixed electronic and ionic conducting perovskites such as Sr-doped $LaCoO_3$(LSCo), $LaFeO_3$(LSF), and $LaFe_{0.8}Co_{0.2}O_3$(LSCF) has drawn much attention because these materials exhibit lower electrode impedance than LSM. However, chemical reaction occurs at the manufacturing temperature of the cathode when these materials directly contact with YSZ. In addition, thermal expansion coefficient(TEC) mismatch with YSZ is also a significant issue. It is important, therefore, to develop cathode materials with good chemical stability and matched TEC with the SOFC electrolyte, as well as with high electrochemical activity.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.94-99
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• 2004

Anode-supported flat tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) was investigated to increase the cell power density. The anode-supported flat tube was fabricated by extrusion process. The porosity and pore size of Ni/YSZ ($8mol\%$ yttria-stabilized zirconia) cermet anode were $50.6\%\;and\;0.23{\mu}m$, respectively. The Ni particles in the anode were distributed uniformly and connected well to each other particles in the cermet anode. YSZ electrolyte layer and multilayered cathode composed of $LSM(La_{0.85}Sr_{0.15})_{0.9}MnO_3)/YSZ$ composite, LSM, and $LSCF(La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.7}O_3)$ were coated onto the anode substrate by slurry dip coating, subsequently. The anode-supported flat tubular cell showed a performance of $300mW/cm^2 (0.6V,\; 500 mA/cm^2)\;at\;500^{\circ}C$. The electrochemical characteristics of the flat tubular cell were examined by ac impedance method and the humidified fuel enhanced the cell performance. Areal specific resistance of the LSM-coated SUS430 by slurry dipping process as metallic interconnect was $148m{\Omega}cm^2\;at\;750^{\circ}C$ and then decreased to $148m{\Omega}cm^2$ after 450hr. On the other hand, the LSM-coated Fecralloy by slurry dipping process showed a high area specific resistance.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
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• v.50 no.3
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• pp.562-566
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• 2012

A novel design of tubular segmented-in-series(SIS) solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) sub module was presented in this paper. The tubular ceramic support was fabricated by the extrusion technique. The NiO-YSZ anode and the yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte were deposited onto the ceramic support by dip coating method. After sintering at $1350^{\circ}C$ for 5 h, a dense and crack-free YSZ film was successfully fabricated. Also, the multi-layered cathode composed of LSM-YSZ composite, LSM and LSCF were coated onto the sintered ceramic support by dip coating method and sintered at $1150^{\circ}C$. The performance of the tubular SIS SOFC cell and sub module electrically connected by the Ag-glass interconnect was measured and analysed with different fuel flow and operating temperature.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.1986-1991
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• 2007

KEPRI has studied anode-supported planar SOFCs and kW class stacks operated at intermediate temperature for development of a combined heat and power unit. A single cell composed of Ni-YSZ/FL/ScSZ/LSCF showed the maximum power density of 0.55 W/$cm^2$ at $650^{\circ}C$ and 1.8 W/$cm^2$ at $750^{\circ}C$. With 37 cells of 10${\times}10cm^2$ and stainless steel interconnects, a 1kW class SOFC stack was manufactured. When a 1kW class SOFC system was operated at $750^{\circ}C$ with city gas, it showed the power output of 1.3 kWe at 50 A. It also recuperated heat of 0.57-1.2 kWth according to the loaded current through combustion of unreacted anode off-gas. Recently, KEPRI is developing a new kW class SOFC stack and system to increase efficiency and durability at intermediate temperature.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.47 no.2
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• pp.195-198
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• 2010

It has been considered to apply GDC ($Gd_{0.1}Ce_{0.9}O_{1-X}$) for low-temperature SOFC electrolytes because it has higher ionic conductivity than YSZ at low temperature. However, open circuit voltage with using GDC ($Gd_{0.1}Ce_{0.9}O_{1-X}$) electrolyte in SOFCs, becomes lower than using YSZ (8 mol% Yttria stabilized Zirconia) electrolyte because GDC has electronic conductivity. In this work, the effect of changing GDC electrolyte thickness on the open circuit voltage has been investigated. Ni-GDC anode-supported unit cells were fabricated as follows. Mixed NiO-GDC powders were pressed and pre-sintered at $1200^{\circ}C$. And then, GDC electrolyte material was dip-coated on the anode and sintered at $1400^{\circ}C$. Finally the LSCF-GDC cathode material was screen-printed on the electrolyte and sintered at $1000^{\circ}C$. Electrolyte thickness was controlled by the number of dip-coating times. Open circuit voltage was measured depending on electrolyte thickness at $650^{\circ}C$ and found that the thicker GDC electrolyte was, the better OCV was.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.641-648
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• 2011

KEPRI (KEPCO Research Institute) designed and operated the lab-scale high temperature electrolysis (HTE) system for hydrogen production with $10{\times}10cm^2$ 5-cell stack at $750^{\circ}C$. The electrolysis cell consists of Ni-YSZ steam/hydrogen electrode, YSZ electrolyte and LSCF based perovskite as air side electrode. The active area of one cell is 92.16 $cm^2$. The hydrogen production system was operated for 2664 hours and the performance of electrolysis stack was measured by means of current variation with from 6 A to 28 A. The maximum hydrogen production rate and current efficiency was 47.33 NL/hr and 80.90% at 28 A, respectively. As the applied current increased, hydrogen production rate, current efficiency and the degradation rate of stack were increased respectively. From the result of stack performance, optimum operation current of this system was 24 A, considering current efficiencies and cell degradations.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.22 no.5
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• pp.592-598
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• 2011

Electrode of solid oxide fuel cell must have sufficient porosity to allow gas transport to the interface with electrolyte effectively but high porosity has a negative impact on structural stability in electrode support. Thus, the upper limit of porosity is based on consideration of mechanical strength of electrode. In this study, the effect of microstructure of Ni-YSZ anode supported SOFC on the mechanical and electrical property was investigated. LSCF composite cathode and 8YSZ electrolyte were used. The porosity of the anode was modified by the amount of graphite powder and added graphite contents were 24, 18, 12 vol%, respectively. The higher the porosity, the better the electrical performance, $P_{max}$. While the flexural strength decreased with increasing the amount of graphite. But the rate of increase in electrical performance and the rate of decrease in mechanical strength were not directly proportional to amount of graphite. The optimum graphite content incorporating both electrical and mechanical performance was 18 vol%.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.52 no.5
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• pp.338-343
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• 2015

To prevent an interfacial reaction between the anode and the electrolyte layer during the conventional high-temperature co-firing process, an anode-supported type cell with a thin-film electrolyte was fabricated by low-temperature ceramic thick film coating process. Ni-GDC cermet composite was used as the anode material and YSZ was used as the electrolyte material. Open circuit voltage and maximum power density were found to strongly depend on the surface uniformity of the anode functional layer. By optimizing the microstructure of the anode functional layer, the open circuit voltage and maximum powder density of the cell increased to 1.11 V and $1.35W/cm^2$, respectively, at $750^{\circ}C$. When a GDC barrier layer was applied between the YSZ electrolyte and the LSCF cathode, the cell showed good stability, with almost no degradation up to 100 h. Anode-supported type SOFCs with high performance and good stability were fabricated using a coating process.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.45 no.12
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• pp.772-776
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• 2008

The Korea Electric Power Research Institute (KEPRI) has been developing planar solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and power systems for combined heat and power (CHP) units. The R&D work includes solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) materials investigation, design and fabrication of single cells and stacks, and kW class SOFC CHP system development. Anode supported cells composed of Ni-YSZ/FL/YSZ/LSCF were enlarged up to $15{\times}15\;cm^2$ and stacks were manufactured using $10{\times}10\;cm^2$ cells and metallic interconnects such as ferritic stainless steel. The first-generation system had a 37-cell stack and an autothermal reformer for use with city gas. The system showed maximum stack power of about $1.3\;kW_{e,DC}$ and was able to recover heat of $0.57{\sim}1.2\;kW_{th}$ depending on loaded current by making hot water. The second-generation system was composed of an improved 48-cell stack and a prereformer (or steam reformer). The thermal management subsystem design including heat exchangers and insulators was also improved. The second-generation system was successfully operated without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about $1.3\;kW_{e,DC}$ with hydrogen and $1.2\;kW_{e,DC}$ with city. The system also recuperated heat of about $1.1\;kW_{th}$ by making hot water. Recently KEPRI manufactured a 2kW class SOFC stack and a system by scaling up the second-generation 1kW system and will develop a 5kW class CHP system by 2010.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.24 no.2
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• pp.186-192
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• 2013

In order to reduce the costs and to improve the durability of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC), the operating temperature should be decreased while the power density is maintained as much as possible. However, lowering the operating temperature increases the cathode interfacial polarization resistances dramatically, limiting the performance of low-temperature SOFC at especially purely electronic conducting cathode. To improve cathode performance at low temperature, the number of reaction sites for the oxygen reduction should be increased by using a mixed ionic and electronic conducting (MIEC) material. In this study, anode-supported fuel cells with two different thicknesses of the MIEC cathode were fabricated and tested at various operating temperatures. The anode supported cell with $32.5{\mu}m$-thick BSCFZn-LSCF cathode layer showed much lower polarization resistance than that with $3.2{\mu}m$ thick cahtode and higher power density especially at low temperature. The effects of cathode layer thickness on the electrochemical performance are discussed with analysis of impedance spectra.