Ceramic fuel cells

Beryllium Oxide (Bromellite). BeO, mw 25.01, white amorph powd, mp 2530°, bp ca 3900°, d 3.01g/cc. Sol in coned acids and alkalies. V si sol in w. Prepn is by burning BeC03 at 900° in a Pt crucible to the oxide. It is used in nuclear reactor fuels and moderators as well as in powder metallurgy, ceramics, fuel cells and coatings (see above)... 

N. Q. Minh and T. Takahashi, Science and Technology of Ceramic Fuel Cells, Elsevier, Amsterdam (1995).. 

Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL) and E.ON U.K. have agreed to develop a fuel cell combined heat and power (CHP) unit that can be fitted... 

Steam pre-reforming of propane to a methane-rich fuel for internal reforming in solid oxide fuel cells," K. Ahmed and K. 176ger, Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd., 4th EUROSOFC, Luceme/Switzerland July 2000... 

Personal communication with Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd., August 2000. 

Australia Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited was demonstrated a 5 kWe laboratory prototype fuel cell system in 1997. Their system has thin sheet steel components as interconnects in a planer fuel cell design. They are currently scaling up to a 25 kWe pre-commercial stack module. 

Recently, a novel microbial fuel cell harvesting energy from the marine sediment—seawater interface has been reported. Also, a novel photosynthetic biofuel cell that is a hybrid between a microbial and enzymatic biofuel cell has been reported for the very first time. More recently, reports of an unconventional biomass-fueled ceramic fuel cell can also be found in the literature. A new concept of Gastrobots —hybrid robots that utilize operational power derived from microbial fuel cells—has been introduced. Finally, the generation of electrical power by direct oxidation of glucose was demonstrated in mediatorless microbial fuel cells, which produced currents up to 3 fiA/cm at unknown cell voltage. ... 

The Australian company Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL), a leader in planar SOFCs, is seeking to identify potential partners to create market-ready packages that would incorporate solid oxide fuel cells. 

Planar SOFC, in particular, monolithic designs (MHI) are capable of high (volumetric) power densities most favoured by direct and short current paths across the stack components. The PEN is principally square, rectangular and circular (Ceramic Fuel Cells Limited (CFCL), Mitsubishi Materials Corp., SulzerHexis) in shape with active surface areas of 100-200 cm2 (15.5-31 in2). A drawback of this design is that it often necessitates the use of high temperature sealants for application at the in-... 

U.S. Department of Energy, Broad Agency Announcement (BAA)No. DE-BA26-99FT40274 for research entitled Multi-Layer Ceramic Fuel Cell Research , 7 June, 1999. 

Steele, B. C. H. Survey of Materials Selection for Ceramic Fuel Cells II. Cathodes and Anodes, Solid State Ionics, 86-88, 1223 (1996). 

As already stated, the strategies to optimize ceramic fuel cells are essentially materials search strategies. 

H2 production plant, heat pump, tentative H2 absorbing bed and ceramic fuel cell... 

Protonic ceramic fuel cell (PCFC)—The ceramic electrolyte can elec-trochemically oxidize fossil fuels, eliminating the need for fuel reformers. 

There is an extensive literature dealing with fuel cell and battery technologies and the interested reader has much choice. The monograph by N.Q. Minh and T. Takahashi [4] deals in depth with the science and technology of ceramic fuel cells, especially with the electroceramics aspects. The comprehensive texts by K. 

However, 1000 °C leads to a very rapid reaction if anode reform is attempted and in many cases the result is excessive thermal stress of the ceramic electrolyte, so that conventional reformers must be used. As a consequence there has come about a class of intermediate-temperature SOFCs based on alternative ceramic formulations, 500 °C operation having been achieved by a metal/ceramic fuel cell by the company Ceres (see Chapter 4) set up by Imperial College London. 

The beginnings of the SOFC are recorded in an early East German University patent (Mobius and Roland, 1968) which shows awareness of many of the variables still being worked upon today. The oxides of lanthanum, zirconium, yttrium, samarium, europium, terbium, ytterbium, cerium and calcium are mentioned as candidate electrolyte materials. The proposed monolithic planar arrangement has, however, been abandoned by many companies, on the example of Allied Signal. One notable exception is a reversion to a circular planar concept by Ceramic Fuel Cells of Australia, UK (Section 4.7). The Rolls-Royce all-ceramic fuel cell (Section 4.3), which is monolithic and has one compliant feature, namely a gap, is a major exception. One modern trend is towards lower SOFC temperatures, with the intermediate-temperature IT/SOFC allowing the use of cell and stack arrangements with some flexibility and manoeuvrability based on new electrolytes, metallic flow plates, electrodes and interconnects. 

In Figure 4.7, 800 °C is the operating temperature of the planar IT/SOFC, patented by Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd of Australia (Gibson etal, 1995 Wolfe etal, 1999 Badwal etal, 1996 1997 Donelson etal, 1998). 

In Donelson etal. (1998) Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd, of Australia, gave itself a target of A 1500/kW for SOFC stationary power installations of 200 kW. A rough translation is 600/kW, or US 960/kW of incomplete cell. 

Of the four new companies included in the survey this year, two (Ceramic Fuel Cells and Ceres Power Holdings) are focused on developing SOFCs for stationary market applications, and two (ITM Power and Quest Air Technology) are concerned with... 

Rambert, S. et al.. Composite ceramic fuel cell fabricated by vacuum plasma spraying, J. Eur. Ceram. Soc., 19, 921-923 (1999). 

Huang, K.Q. et al.. Electrode performance test on single ceramic fuel cells using as electrolyte Sr- and Mg-doped LaGaOj, J. Electrochem. Soc., 144, 3620-3624 (1997). 

Huang, K.Q., Tichy, R., and Goodenough, J.B., Superior perovskite oxide-ion conductor strontium- and magnesium-doped LaGaOj. III. Performance tests of single ceramic fuel cells. Journal of the American Ceramic Society, 1998, 81, 2581-2585. 

CFCL (2004). Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd. Distributed Generation Product Concept, web http / / www.cfcl.com.au. 

---