• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.42 no.12 s.283
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• pp.833-841
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• 2005

The oxidation resistance and electrical conductivity of various commercial ferritic stainless steels including STS444 were tested in an air atmosphere at $700^{\circ}C$. Crofer22 developed specially for SOFC interconnect was also examined for the aim of comparing with the test results of STS444. Although STS444 exhibited higher oxidation resistance than Corfer22, the electrical conductivity of the scale formed on Crofer22 was higher, indicating that the resistivity of scale formed on Crofer22 is much lower than that of STS444. To gain a better understanding of the relation between oxidation behavior and electrical conductivity, the oxide scales formed on STS444 and Crofer22 were analyzed in terms of the structure, composition, and phase. Consequently, the influence of alloying elements on electrical conductivity of Fe-Cr alloys was discussed.

• Corrosion Science and Technology
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• v.6 no.1
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• pp.1-6
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• 2007

Ferritic stainless steels for the SOFC interconnect applications are required to possess not only a good oxidation resistance, but also a high electrical conductivity of the oxide scale that forms during exposure at the SOFC operating environment. In order to understand the effects of alloying elements on the oxidation behavior of ferritic stainless steels and on the electrical properties of oxide scales, two kinds of commercial ferritic stainless steels, STS 430 and STS 444, were investigated by performing isothermal oxidations at $800^{\circ}C$ in a wet air containing 3% $H_{2}O$. The results showed that STS 444 was superior to STS 430 in both of the oxidation resistance and the area specific resistance. Although STS 444 contained a less amount of Mn for the $(Mn,Cr)_{3}O_{4}$ spinel formation than STS 430, the minor alloying elements of Al and Mo in STS 444, which were accumulated in the base metal region adjacent the scale, were suggested to reduce the scale growth rate and to enhance the scale adherence to the base metal.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.21 no.5
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• pp.405-411
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• 2010

A 5kW class SOFC cogeneration system consisted of a hot box part, a cold BOP (balance of plant) part, and a hot water reservoir. The hot box part contained a stack, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor, and heat exchangers. A cold BOP part was composed of blowers, pumps, a water trap, and system control units. A 5kW stack was designed to integrate 2 sub-modules. In this paper, the 5kW class SOFC system was operated using 2 short stacks connected in parallel to test the sub-module and the system. A short stack had 15 cells with $15{\times}15 cm^2$ area. When a natural gas was used, the total power was about 1.38 kW at 120A. Because the sub-modules were connected in parallel and current was loaded using a DC load, voltages of sub-modules were same and the currents were distributed according to the resistance of sub-modules. The voltage of the first stack was 11.46 V at 61A and the voltage of the second stack was 11.49V at 59A.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.364-377
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• 2014

The performances of a coupled reactor in which a steam reformer and a catalytic combustor were mounted simultaneously had been investigated and compared. The combustible offgas exhausted from the anode of SOFC and MCFC were utilized as heat sources for the endothermic steam methane reforming. The catalytic combustion was used in order to burn the combustible offgas. Thermal energy released by the catalytic combustion is directly transferred to the reformer surrounding the combustor. The various operational conditions such as fuel utilization rate, steam to carbon ratio, amount of catalysts, fuel cell loads were changed. And operating variables were comprehensively identified by sensitivity analysis. The fundamental results from this experimental study show the potential abilities of the coupled reactor. Therefore the results will be of help to design and manufacture the more better coupled reactor in the future.

• The Transactions of the Korean Institute of Power Electronics
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• v.8 no.6
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• pp.551-560
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• 2003

This paper summarizes development of a 10KW stand-alone power processing unit for 5KW SOFC-low voltage battery hybrid fuel cell power generation system. The power processing unit Includes three parts a high frequency DC-DC converter boosts low fuel cell voltage, a DC-AC inverter converts a dc voltage into a regulated ac voltage and a bidirectional DC-DC converter charges or discharges the battery. The converter topology, design, control method, and experimental result arc presented to meet the specifications such as efficiency of 90% and cost of $40/KW laid down for the "2003 Future Energy Challenge Competition" organized by the U.S. Department of Energy and IEEE. and IEEE.

• Journal of Hydrogen and New Energy
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• v.34 no.2
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• pp.196-204
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• 2023

This study performed the numerical analysis of the internal flow phenomena of 1 kWe-class solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks with internal manifold type and planar cells using commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software, Star-CCM+. In particular, the locations where the turbulent phenomena occur inside the SOFC stack were investigated. In addition, the laminar flow model and the standard k-ε turbulent model were used to calculate the SOFC stack, separately. And, the calculation results of both laminar and turbulent models were compared. The calculation results showed that turbulent phenomena occurred mainly in the cathode flow. Especially, the turbulent phenomena were found in the cathode inlet/outlet region, and local turbulence occurred in the end plate near the inlet pipe.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.06a
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• pp.139-139
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• 2010

LSM is widely used as a cathode material in SOFC, because of its high electrochemical activity, good stability and compatibility with YSZ electrolyte at high temperature. However, LSM in traditional cathode materials will not generate a satisfactory performance at intermediate temperature. In order to reduce the polarization resistance of cell with the operating temperature of SOFC system, the cathode material of LSCF is one of the most suitable electrode materials because of its high mixed ionic and electronic conductivity. In this report, cathode material, $La_{0.6}Sr_{0.4}Co_{0.2}Fe_{0.8}O_3$ powder for intermediate temperature SOFC was synthesized by Pechini method using the starting materials such as nitrate of La, Sr, Co and Fe including ethylene glycol, etc. As a result, the synthesized powder that calcined above $700^{\circ}C$ exhibits successfully perovskite structure, indicating phase-pure of LSCF. Moreover, the particle size, surface area, crystal structure and morphology of the synthesized oxide powders were characterized by SEM, XRD, and BET, etc. In order to evaluate the electrochemical performance for the synthesized powder, slury mixture using the synthesized cathode material was coated by screen-printing process on the anode-supported electrolyte which was prepared by a tape casting method and co-sintering. Finally, electrochemical studies of the SOFC unit cell, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.83.2-83.2
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• 2010

평판형 고체산화물 연료전지(planar SOFC : Solid oxide Fuelcell)는 높은 전류 효율 및 출력밀도를 가지는 중,대형 발전용 전기소자이다. SOFC 스택을 600~800도에서 작동할 경우, 금속 분리판에서 휘발된 크롬에 의한 열화현상과 금속의 산화에 의한 표면 저항의 증가가 큰 문제점으로 알려져 있으며, 이를 개선하기 위한 많은 연구가 진행되고 있다. 본 연구에서는 금속 분리판의 열화를 억제하기 위한 여러 보호코팅의 특성을 밝히고, 특성차이의 원인을 분석하고자 하였다. 모재는 상용 STS444합금 (Nisshin steel 생산) 2.0mmt 박판을 사용하였으며, 표면 상태를 균일하게 하기 위하여 표면은 동일한 #1200 번 사포로 연마후 코팅하였다. 적용한 코팅은 전기도금 Ni 코팅, (MnCo)3O4 wet powder spray 코팅, (MnCo)3O4 ADM코팅 3종이었으며, 코팅층의 두께는 최적 공정조건에 따라 달리 하였다. 산화후 형성되는 표면 산화물의 전기적 특성을 평가하기 위하여 시험편의 비면적 저항 (ASR : area specific resistance)을 장시간 측정하였다. 측정편의 크기는 가로 4cm ${\times}$ 세로 4cm였으며, 100시간 공기중 산화후 측정하였다. 표면 접촉을 높이기 위하여 Pt paste를 40~50um도포하였으며, 1~0.1A인가된 전류에 대한 저항을 4전극법 (4-probe)으로 측정하였다. 표면 코팅층이 크롬 휘발을 억제하는 정도를 평가하기 위하여 크롬 휘발량을 측정하였다. 시편은 가로 1.5cm ${\times}$ 세로 1cm 였으며, 공급된 공기와 수분의 혼합가스와 응축기 표면에 흡착된 크롬의 양을 ICP-MASS법으로 측정하였다.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Safety
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• v.30 no.1
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• pp.21-27
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• 2015

In this study, interfacial characteristics between SOFC and Ag paste as current collector was estimated in the high temperature environment. The Ag paste was used to connect the unit cell of SOFC strongly with interconnector and provide the electrical conductivity between them. To confirm electrical conductivity, Ag paste was treated in the furnace at $800^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours. The sheet resistance of Ag paste was measured to compare the resistance values before and after the heat treatment. Also, the four-point bending test was performed to measure the interfacial adhesion. The unit cell of SOFC and $SiO_2$ wafer were diced and then attached by Ag paste. The $SiO_2$ wafer had the center notch to initiate a crack from the tip of the notch. The modified stereomicroscope combined with the CCD camera and system for measuring the length was used to observe the fracture behavior. To compare the characteristics before heat treatment and after heat treatment, the specimen was exposed in the furnace at $800^{\circ}C$ for 48 hours and then the interfacial adhesion was evaluated. Finally, the interfacial adhesion energy quantitatively increases $1.78{\pm}0.07J/m^2$ to $4.9{\pm}0.87J/m^2$ between the cathode and Ag paste and also increase $2.9{\pm}0.47J/m^2$ to $5.12{\pm}1.01J/m^2$ between the anode and Ag paste through the high temperature. Therefore, it is expected that Ag paste as current collector was appropriate for improving the structural stability in the stacked SOFC system if the electrical conductivity was more increased.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.39 no.1
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• pp.86-91
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• 2002

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) are of great interest of next generation energy conversion system due to their high energy efficiency and environmental friendliness. The basic SOFC unit consists of anode, cathode and solid electrolyte. Among these components, anode plays the most important role for the oxidation of fuel to generate electricity and also behaves as a substrate of the whole cell. It is normally requested that the anode materials should have the high electrical conductivity and gas permeability to reduce the polarization loss of the cell. In this study, the effect of pore former on the microstructure of anode substrate was investigated and thus on the electrical conductivity and the gas permeability. According to the results, microstructure and electrical conductivity of anode substrate were greatly influenced by the shape of pore former and especially by the anisotrpy of the pore former. The use of anisotropic pore former is supposed to deteriorate the cell performance by which the electrical conduction path is disconnected but also the effective gas diffusion path for the fuel is reduced.