Fabrication of Thin Anode-Supported SOFCs

摘要

A thin, anode supported flat plate solid oxide fuel cell is being developed at Riso National Laboratory. The anode support and the electrochemically active anode layer are based on NiO/YSZ composites. These layers, adding to a total thickness of 200 to 300 μm, are co-fired with a 10 to 25 μm electrolyte of zirconia, stabilised with 8 mol% yttria. An approximately 60 μm thick cathode, graded in composition and structure through five layers, is applied on the sintered anode-electrolyte half-cell and sintered. The resulting cell is strong and flexible. It is produced by cheap, scaleable methods, which so far have enabled the scale-up of cell areas to 21x21 cm~2. A cell performance of 0.3 Ωcm~2 is obtained at 850°C with moist hydrogen versus air. Further improvements may be attainable by minimising diffusion losses in the anode support. For this purpose addition of pore formers is tested. The cell type has provided the basis for a five year extension of the national Danish program on SOFC including establishment of pre-pilot scale fabrication facilities.