Recent developments in metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells

摘要

Metal-supported solid oxide fuel cells (MSCs) offer certain strategic advantages over the morernconventional solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), which comprise only ceramic materials. Since alloys such asrnferritic steels are very similar in their coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) with ceramic components, viz.,rncerias, zirconias, and nickel oxide doped with either of them, they could provide excellent thermalrncyclability while maintaining a strong interlayer bond. Therefore, in an anode-supported cell the entire NiOceramicrnsupport can be replaced by a ferritic steel porous support—the catalytically active NiO is therefore,rna functional layer only. A huge savings in materials cost is achievable, because cerias and zirconiasrn[usually doped with Y, Gd, Sm rare earth (RE) elements] are considerably more expensive that ferriticrnsteels. Lowering the capital costs for SOFCs is an extensive global undertaking with US Department ofrnEnergy (DOE) laying down targets such as ~$ 200/kW for the stack itself, in order for SOFCs to becomerncompetitive with grid power costs and to offer a power source that promises 24 × 7 power supply for criticalrnapplications. This will eventually lead to a premier electricity generation device in the distributed power space, with the highest known electrical efficiencies (>50%). MSCs need very robust, high precision, andrncost-effective manufacturing techniques, which are scalable to high volumes. One of the main goals in thisrnreview is to showcase some of the work done in this area since the last review (2010), and to assess therntechnology challenges, and new solutions that have emerged over the past few years.