• Korean Journal of Materials Research
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.356-363
• /
• 2010

For this paper, we investigated the area specific resistance (ASR) of commercially available ferritic stainless steels with different chemical compositions for use as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) interconnect. After 430h of oxidation, the STS446M alloy demonstrated excellent oxidation resistance and low ASR, of approximately 40 $m{\Omega}cm^2$, of the thermally grown oxide scale, compared to those of other stainless steels. The reason for the low ASR is that the contact resistance between the Pt paste and the oxide scale is reduced due to the plate-like shape of the $Cr_2O_3$(s). However, the acceptable ASR level is considered to be below 100 $m{\Omega}cm^2$ after 40,000 h of use. To further improve the electrical conductivity of the thermally grown oxide on stainless steels, the Co layer was deposited on the stainless steel by means of an electroless deposition method; it was then thermally oxidized to obtain the $Co_3O_4$ layer, which is a highly conductive layer. With the increase of the Co coating thickness, the ASR value decreased. For Co deposited STS444 with 2 ${\mu}m$hickness, the measured ASR at $800^{\circ}$ after 300 h oxidation is around 10 $m{\Omega}cm^2$, which is lower than that of the STS446M, which alloy has a lower ASR value than that of the non-coated STS. The reason for this improved high temperature conductivity seems to be that the Mn is efficiently diffused into the coating layer, which diffusion formed the highly conductive (Mn,Co)$_3O_4$ spinel phases and the thickness of the $Cr_2O_3$(S), which is the rate controlling layer of the electrical conductivity in the SOFC environment and is very thin

• Proceedings of the Korea Society for Energy Engineering kosee Conference
• /
• 2007.11a
• /
• pp.193-198
• /
• 2007

KIER has been developing the anode supported flat tubular SOFC stack for the intermediate temperature $(700{\sim}800^{\circ}C)$ operation. for this purpose, we have first fabricated anode supported flat tubular cells by the optimization between the current collecting method and the induction brazing process. After that we designed the compact fuel & air manifold by adopting the simulation technique to uniformly supply fuel & air gas and the unique seal & insulation method to make the more compact stack. For making stack, the prepared anode-supported flat tubular cells with effective electrode area of $90cm^2$ of connected in series with 12 modules, in which one module consists of two cells connected in parallel. The performance of stack in 3 % humidified $H_2$ and air at $800^{\circ}C$ shows maximum power of 507 W. Through these experiments, we obtained basic & advanced technology of the anode-supported flat tubular cell and established the proprietary concept of the anode-supported flat tubular SOFC stack in KIER.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Manufacturing Process Engineers
• /
• v.17 no.5
• /
• pp.52-57
• /
• 2018

Most current ships have adopted on-board diesel generators to produce electricity, but the overall efficiency of equipment is down to about 50% due to thermal losses from operations such as exhaust gas, jacket water cooler, scavenge air cooler, etc. Recently, fuel cells have been highlighted as a promising technology to reduce the effect on the environment and have a higher efficiency. Therefore, this paper suggested a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)-gas turbine (GT) using waste heat from a SOFC and SOFC-GT-steam turbine (ST) with Rankine cycle. To compare both configurations, the fuel flow rate, current density, cell voltage, electrical power, and overall efficiency were evaluated at different operating loads. The overall efficiency of both SOFC hybrid systems was higher than the conventional system.

• Journal of the Korean Electrochemical Society
• /
• v.18 no.4
• /
• pp.172-181
• /
• 2015

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) continue to be among the most promising alternative energy devices. This paper addresses i-V characteristics of SOFC with a focus on air flow rate along the planar anode electrodes. To address this, detailed Butler-Volmer kinetics are implemented in a general-purpose CFD code FLUENT. The numerical results were validated against experimental data from the literature showing excellent match with i-V polarization data ranging 1V-0.4V. Numerical calculations of fuel cell operation under different flow rare conditions were performed in three-dimensional geometries. Results are presented in terms of concentration distribution of hydrogen, oxygen, and water. The simulations and results indicate that advanced CFD with UDF(User-Defined Function) of Butler-Volmer kinetics can be used to identify the conditions leading to air flow rate and specific surface area and guide development of operating conditions and improve the fuel cell system performance.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Visualization
• /
• v.19 no.2
• /
• pp.56-62
• /
• 2021

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is the high efficiency fuel cell operating at high temperatures ranging from 700-1000℃. Design of the flow paths of the fuel and air in SOFCs is important to improve cell performance and prevent cell degradation. However, the uneven distribution of current density in the traditional type having one inlet and outlet causes cell degradation. In this regard, the parallel flow path with two inlet and outlets was designed and compared to the traditional type based on computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. To check the cell performance, hydrogen distribution, velocity distribution and current density distribution were monitored. The results validated that the parallel designs with two inlets and outlets have a higher cell performance compared to the traditional design with one inlet and outlet due to a larger reaction area. In case of uniform-type paths, more uniform current density distribution was observed with less cross-sectional variation in flow paths. In case of contracted and expanded inflow paths, significant improvement of performance and uniform current density was not observed compared to uniform parallel path. Considering SOFC cell with uniform current density can prevent cell degradation, more suitable design of SOFC cell with less cross-sectional variation in the flow path should be developed. This work can be helpful to understand the role of flow distribution in the SOFC performance.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
• /
• v.44 no.12
• /
• pp.696-702
• /
• 2007

The family of (Sr,Mg)-doped $LaGaO_3$ compounds, which exhibit high ionic conductivity at $600-800^{\circ}C$ over a wide range of oxygen partial pressure, appears to be promising as the electrolyte for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells. Conventional synthesis routes of (Sr,Mg)-doped $LaGaO_3$ compounds based on solid state reaction have some problems such as the formation of impurity phases, long sintering time and Ga loss during high temperature sintering. Phase stability problem especially, the formation of additional phases at the grain boundary is detrimental to the electrical properties of the electrolyte. From this point of view, we focused to synthesize single phase (Sr,Mg)-doped $LaGaO_3$ electrolyte at the stage of powder synthesis and to apply relatively low heat-treatment temperature using novel synthesis route based on combustion method. The synthesized powder and sintered bulk electrolytes were characterized by XRD, TG-DTA, FT-IR and SEM. AC impedance spectroscopy was used to characterize the electrical transport properties of the electrolyte with the consideration of the contribution of the bulk lattice and grain boundary to the total conductivity. Finally, relationship between synthesis condition and electrical properties of the (Sr, Mg)-doped $LaGaO_3$ electrolytes was discussed with the consideration of phase analysis results.

• Korean Chemical Engineering Research
• /
• v.59 no.4
• /
• pp.557-564
• /
• 2021

Sr_0.92Y_0.08Ti_1-xV_xO_3-δ (SYTV) with perovskite structure was investigated as an alternative anode to utilize H₂S containing fuels in solid oxide fuel cells. To improve the electrochemical performance of Sr_0.92Y_0.08TiO_3-δ (SYT), vanadium(V) was substituted to titanium(Ti) at the B-site of the SYT perovskites. The SYTV synthesized by the Pechini method was chemically compatible with the YSZ electrolyte without additional by-products formation under the cell fabricating conditions. As increasing V substitution amounts, the oxygen vacancies increased, resulting to increasing ionic conductivity of the anode. The cell performance in pure H₂ at 850 ℃ is 19.30 mW/cm² and 34.87 mW/cm² for a 1 mol.% and 7 mol.% of V substituted anodes, respectively. The cell performance using H₂ fuel containing 1000 ppm of H₂S at 850 ℃ was 23.37 mW/cm² and 73.11 mW/cm² for a 1 mol.% and 7 mol.% of V substituted anodes, respectively.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
• /
• v.29 no.4
• /
• pp.317-323
• /
• 2018

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) operates at high temperature, therefor has the advantage of higher power generation and using exhaust heat than other fuel cells. In particular, the reforming reaction can be performed inside the SOFC stack to reduce the cooling of the stack and the burden on the reformer reactor. In this study, the reformer structure, operating characteristics, and thermal efficiency were evaluated for the optimization design of a heat exchanger type reformer of a 1 kW SOFC system.

• Electrical & Electronic Materials
• /
• v.10 no.2
• /
• pp.141-149
• /
• 1997

L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$Mn $O_{3}$ powders were prepared by both GNP(Glycine-Nitrate Process) and solid state reaction method in various of calcination temperature(800-1000.deg. C) and time in air. Also, L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$Mn $O_{3}$ cathode contacts on YSZ(Yttria-Stabilized Zirconia) substrate were prepared by screen printing and sintering method as a function of sintering temperature(1100-1450.deg. C) in air. Sintering behaviors have been investigated by SEM(Scanning Electron Microscope) and porosity measurement. Compositional and structural characterization were carried out by X-ray diffractometer and ICP AES(Inductively Coupled Plasma-Atomic Emission Spectrometry) analysis. Electrical characterization was carried out by the electrical conductivity with linear 4 point probe method. As the calcination period increased in solid state reaction method, L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$Mn $O_{3}$ phase increased. Although L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$Mn $O_{3}$ single phase was obtained only for 48hrs at 1000.deg. C, in GNP method it was easy to get single and ultra-fine L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$Mn $O_{3}$ powders with submicron particle size at 650.deg. C for 30min. The particle size and thickness of L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$Mn $O_{3}$ cathode contact by solid state reaction method did not change during the heat treatment, while those by GNP method showed good sintering characteristics because initial powder size fabricated from GNP method is smaller than that fabricated from solid state reaction method. Based on enthalpy change from thermodynamic data and ICP-AES analysis, it was suggested to make cathode contact in composition of (L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$)$_{0.91}$ Mn $O_{3}$ which have little second phase (L $a_{2}$Z $r_{2}$ $O_{7}$) for high efficient solid oxide fuel cells applications. As (L $a_{0.7}$S $r_{0.3}$)$_{0.91}$Mn $O_{3}$ cathode contact on YSZ substrate was sintering at 1250.deg. C the temperature that liquid phase sintering did not occur. It was possible to obtain proper cathode contacts with electrical conductivity of 150(S/cm) and porosity content of 30-40%.m) and porosity content of 30-40%.

• Proceedings of the Materials Research Society of Korea Conference
• /
• 2009.05a
• /
• pp.56.1-56.1
• /
• 2009

The intermediate operating temperature of solid oxide fuel cells (IT-SOFCs) have achieved considerable importance in the area of power fabrication. This is because to improve materials compatibility, their long-term stability and cost saving potential. However, to conserve rational cell performance at reduced-temperature regime, cathode performance should be obtained without negotiating the internal resistance and the electrode kinetics of the cell. Recently, double perovskite structure cathodes have been studied with great attention as a potential material for IT-SOFCs. In this study, double-perovskite structured cathodes of $GdBaCoCuO_{5+\delta}$, $GdBaCo_{2/3}Cu_{2/3}Fe_{2/3}O_{5+\delta}$ compositions and $(1-x)GdBaCo_2O_{5+\delta}+xCe_{0.9}Gd_{0.1}O_{1.95}$ (x = 10, 20, 30 and 40 wt.%) composites were evaluated as the cathode for intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cells(IT-SOFCs). Electrical conductivity of the cathodes were measured by DC 4-probe method, and the thermal expansion coefficient of each sample was measured up to $900^{\circ}C$ by a dilatometer study. Area specific resistances(ASR) of the $GdBaCo_{2/3}Cu_{2/3}Fe_{2/3}O_{5+\delta}$ cathode and 70 wt.% $GdBaCo_2O5+\delta$ + 30wt.% Ce0.9Gd0.1O1.95 composite cathode on CGO electrolyte substrate were analyzed using AC 3-probe impedance study. The obtained results demonstrate that double perovskite-based compositions are promising cathode materials for IT-SOFCs.