• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2009.06a
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• pp.361-364
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• 2009

KEPRI has studied planar type SOFC stacks using anode-supported single cells and kW class co-generation systems for residential power generation. A 1kW class SOFC system consisted of a hot box part, a cold BOP part and a water reservoir. A hot box part contains a SOFC stack made up of 48 cells with $10{\times}10cm^2$ area and ferritic stainless steel interconnectors, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor and heat exchangers. Thermal management and insulation system were especially designed for self-sustainable operation. A cold BOP part was composed of blowers, pumps, a water trap and system control units. When a 1kW class SOFC system was operated at $750^{\circ}C$ with hydrogen, the stack power was 1.2kW at 30 A and 1.6kW at 50A. Turning off an electric furnace, the SOFC system was operated using hydrogen and city gas without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about 1.3kW with hydrogen and 1.2kW with city gas respectively. The system also recuperated heat of about 1.1kW by making hot water. Recently KEPRI developed stacks using $15{\times}15cm^2$ cells and tested them. KEPRI will develop a 5 kW class CHP system using $15{\times}15cm^2$ stacks by 2010.

• Transactions of the Korean hydrogen and new energy society
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• v.20 no.5
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• pp.384-389
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• 2009

KEPRI (Korea Electric Power Research Institute) has studied planar type solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stacks using anode-supported cells and kW class co-generation systems for residential power generation. In this work, a 1 kW SOFC 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 SOFC stack made up of 48 cells, a fuel reformer, a catalytic combustor, and heat exchangers. Thermal management and insulation system were especially designed for self-sustainable operation in that system. A cold BOP part was composed of blowers, pumps, a water trap, and system control units. When the 1 kW SOFC stack was tested using hydrogen at $750^{\circ}C$, the stack power was about $1.2\;kW_e$ at 30 A and $1.6\;kW_e$ at 50 A. Turning off an electric furnace, the SOFC system was operated using hydrogen and city gas without any external heat source. Under self-sustainable operation conditions, the stack power was about $1.3\;kW_e$ with hydrogen and $1.2\;kW_e$ with city gas respectively. The system also recuperated heat of about $1.1\;kW_{th}$ by making hot water.

• Journal of the Korean Ceramic Society
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• v.43 no.5 s.288
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• pp.270-276
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• 2006

LSGM(($La_xSr_{1-x})(Ga_yMg_{1-y})O_3$) electrolyte is known to show very serious interfacial reaction with other unit cell components, especially with an anode. Such an interfacial reaction induced the phase instability of constituent component and deterioration of the unit cell performance, which become the most challenging issues in LSGM-based SOFCs. In this study, we fabricated LSGM($La_{0.8}Sr_{0.2}Ga_{0.83}Mg_{0.17}O_x$) electrolyte supported-type cell in order to avoid such interfacial problem by lowering the heat-treatment temperature of the electrode fabrication. According to the microstructural and phase analysis, there was no serious interfacial reaction at both electrolyte/anode and electrolyte/cathode interfaces. Moreover, from the electrochemical characterization of the unit cell performance, there was no distinct deterioration of the open cell voltage as well as an internal cell resistance. These results demonstrate the most critical point to be concerned in LSGM-based SOFC is either to find a proper electrode material which will not give any interfacial reaction with LSGM electrolyte or to properly adjust the processing variables for unit cell fabrication, to reduce the interfacial reaction.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.06a
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• pp.306-309
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• 2005

One of the most critical issues in sol id oxide fuel cell (SOFC)running on hydrocarbon fuels is the risk of carbon formation from the fuel gas. The simple method to reduce the risk of carbon formation from the reactions is to add steam to the fuel stream, leading to the carbon gasification react ion. However, the addition of steam to fuel is not appropriate for the auxiliary power unit (APU) and potable power generation (PPG) systems due to an increase of complexity and bulkiness. In this regard, many researchers have focused on so-called 'direct methane' operation of SOFC, which works with dry methane without coking. However, coking can be suppressed only by the operation with a high current density, which may be a drawback especially for the APU and PPG systems. The single chamber fuel cell (SC-SOFC) is a novel simplification of the conventional SOFC into which a premixed fuel/air mixture is introduced. It relies on the selectivity of the anode and cathode catalysts to generate a chemical potential gradient across the cell. Moreover it allows compact and seal-free stack design. In this study, we fabricated honeycomb type mixed-gas fuel cell (MGFC) which has advantages of stacking to the axial direction and increasing volume power density. Honeycomb-structured SOFC with four channels was prepared by dry pressing method. Two alternative channels were coated with electrolyte and cathode slurry in order to make cathodic reaction sites. We will discuss that the anode supported honeycomb type cell running on mixed gas condition.

• 한국신재생에너지학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.13-16
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• 2008

Solid oxide fuel cell(SOFC) is an electrochemical energy conversion system with high efficiency and low-emission of pollution. In order to reduce the operating temperature of SOFC system under $800^{\circ}C$, the thickness reduction of YSZ electrolyte to be as thin as possible, e.g., less than 10 ${\mu}m$ are considered with the microstructure control and optimum design of unit cell. Methods for reducing the thickness of YSZ electrolyte have been investigated in coin cell. Moreover, a large unit cell($8cm{\times}8cm$) for SOFC was fabricated using an anode-supported electrolyte assembly with a thinner electrolyte layer, which was prepared by a tape casting method with a co-sintering technique. we studied the design factors such as active layer, electrolyte thickness, cathode composition, etc,. by the coin type of unit cell ahead of the fabrication process of a large unit cell and also reviewed about the evaluation technique of a large size unit cell such as interconnect design, sealing materials and current collector and so forth. Electrochemical evaluations of the unit cells, including measurements such as power density and impedance, were performed and analyzed. Maximum power density and polarization impedance of coin cell were 0.34W/$cm^2$ and $0.45{\Omega}cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$, respectively. However, Maxium power density of a large unit cell($5cm{\times}5cm$) decreased to 0.21W/$cm^2$ at $800^{\circ}C$ due to the increase of ohmic resistance. However, It was found that the potential value of a large unit cell loaded by 0.22A/$cm^2$ showed 0.76V at 100hrs without the degradation of unit cell.

• Journal of Advanced Marine Engineering and Technology
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• v.35 no.4
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• pp.414-420
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• 2011

Thermal stress analysis of a planar anode-supported SOFC considering electrochemical reactions has been performed under operating conditions where average current density varies from 0 to 2000 $A/m^2$. For the case of the 2000 $A/m^2$ operating condition, Structural stress analysis based on the temperature distributions obtained from the CFD analysis of the unit cell has also been done. From this one way Fluid-Structure Interaction(FSI) analysis, Maximum Von-Mises stress under negligible temperature gradient fields occurs when cell components are perfectly bonded. The maximum stress of the electrolyte, cathode and anode in a unit cell SOFC is 262.58MPa, 28.55MPa and 15.1MPa respectively. The maximum thermal stress is critically dependent on static friction coefficient.

• New & Renewable Energy
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• v.3 no.3
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• pp.5-13
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• 2007

Stacks of solid oxide fuel cell with 1kW max power performance were designed on planar type employing anode-supported cells and metallic interconnects. The stacks composed of 3-cells, 8-cells, and 16-cells were fabricated and tested in serials by using anode-supported cells purchased from Indec, and sealants/interconnects prepared at RIST. In the performance test of the final 16-cells stack, OCV was recorded to be 16.7V. The peak power and the power density showed 1 kW, $0.77W/cm^2$ at $820^{\circ}C$, respectively. In addition, the long-term degradation rate of the power exhibited 2.25 % during 500h at $750^{\circ}C$.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.257-268
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• 2017

This paper proposes an efficient two-dimensional simulation model for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) based on the electrochemical effectiveness model. The effectiveness model is known to accurately predict the current generation performance of SOFC electrodes, by considering the complex reaction/transport processes that occur within thin active functional layers near the electrolyte. After validation tests, the two-dimensional simulation model was used to calculate the distribution of current density and oxygen concentration transverse to the flow channel in anode-supported SOFCs, with which the oxygen depletion characteristics were investigated in detail. In addition, simulations were also conducted to determine the minimum number of grids required in the transverse direction to efficiently obtain accurate results.

• 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.

• 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.