Application of ionic and electronic conducting ceramics in solid oxide fuel cells

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) offer a pollution-free technology to electrochemically generate electricity at high efficiencies. These fuel cells consist of an oxygen ion conducting electrolyte, electronic or mixed electronic and ionic conducting electrodes, and an electronic conducting interconnection. This paper reviews the ceramic materials used for the different cell components, and discusses the performance of cells fabricated using these materials. The paper also discusses the materials and processing studies that are underway to reduce the cell cost, and summarizes the recently built power generation systems that employed state-of-the-art SOFCs

Recent progress in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology

The tubular design of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and the materials used therein have been validated by successful, continuous electrical testing over 69,000 h of early technology cells built on a calcia-stabilized zirconia porous support tube (PST). In the latest technology cells, the PST has been eliminated and replaced by a doped lanthanum manganite air electrode tube. These air electrode supported (AES) cells have shown a power density increase of about 33% with a significantly improved performance stability over the previously used PST type cells. These cells have also demonstrated the ability to thermally cycle over 100 times without any mechanical damage or performance loss. In addition, recent changes in processes used to fabricate these cells have resulted in significant cost reduction. This paper reviews the fabrication and performance of the state-of-the-art AES tubular cells. It also describes the materials and processing studies that are underway to further reduce the cell cost, and summarizes the recently built power generation systems that employed state-of-the-art AES cells

Advances in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology

This document provides the functional design criteria for an addition to the 222-S facility. This project will provide space for manipulator repair, equipment and manipulator decontamination and laundry storage. The manipulator repair and storage area will provide for storage of 20 manipulators, an area for receiving potentially contaminated manipulators and an area for the repair of manipulators. The decontamination area will be capable of decontamination of manipulators and shipping casks, pigs, T-handle carriers and other shipping containers. The laundry storage area will provide space for potentially contaminated and clean laundry

The effect of pressure on solid oxide fuel cell performance

Current work in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is on cathode-supported, anode-supported, or electrolyte-supported cells. In electrode-supported cells, a thin film (5 to 30 microns) of an electrolyte (YSZ) is deposited on a relatively thick, porous electrode. In electrolyte-supported cells, the electrolyte thickness is typically greater than or equal 150 microns upon which thin electrodes are screen printed. Both types of SOFCs are being explored for hybrid applications, that is, in combination with a gas turbine, for which the exit gases from an SOFC generator must be at a high pressure (3 to 15 atm) for input into a gas turbine. It is necessary to examine the expected performance of an SOFC under a high pressure. Work at Westinghouse Ontario Hydro has shown that the performance improvement at high pressures is greater than that can be expected based on an increased Nernst potential alone. This increased performance can in part be attributed to a lower concentration polarization. The objective of this work was to conduct a preliminary analysis of the effect of pressure on the performance of both cathode-supported and electrolyte-supported cells. Flux equations for transport through porous electrodes are formulated and are solved in combination with those for electrochemical operation of an SOFC for cathode-supported and electrolyte-supported cells. The analysis shows that the overall cell performance increases significantly with increasing pressure in the case of cathode-supported cells due to a lowering of concentration polarization at high pressures. Similar effects (not presented here) are also observed on anode-supported cells. By contrast, only a modest improvement is observed in the case of electrolyte-supported cells, commensurate with the fact that in the latter, the ohmic contribution of the electrolyte is the most dominant one, which is not altered by pressure

Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76 TeV

The elliptic, $v_2$, triangular, $v_3$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, out to $p_{\rm T}=20$ GeV/$c$. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for $p_{\rm T}>8$ GeV/$c$. The small $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow fluctuations up to $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high $p_{\rm T}$.Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186

Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76 TeV

The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{AA}}$ using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles strongly depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most suppressed with $R_{\rm{AA}}\approx0.13$ at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7 GeV/$c$. Above $p_{\rm T}=7$ GeV/$c$, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx0.4$ for $p_{\rm T}>30$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s} = 2.76 TeV

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow$K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow$K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow$D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.Comment: 20 pages, 5 captioned figures, 4 tables, authors from page 15, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/307

Comparative environmental profile assessments of commercial and novel material structures for solid oxide fuel cells

Globally, the issue of climate change due to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is now broadly acknowledged as one of the major challenges facing humankind that requires urgent attention. Accordingly, considerable efforts on clean energy technologies and policy recommendations have been developed to address this challenge. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) have been touted to play a role in achieving a reduction in global GHG emissions, offering numerous advantages including higher efficiencies and reduced emissions, over other conventional methods of energy generation. The increasing recognition and emphasis on fuel cells as a representative power generation system of the future has raised concerns over their environmental profile. Extensive research regarding the environmental profile of current structures of SOFCs can be found in the literature, but none consider the use of new materials to achieve lower environmental impacts. This research fills the gap and presents a comparison of the environmental profile of three SOFC structures: a commercially available structure, and two intermediate temperature structures, one using erbia-stabilised bismuth oxide electrolytes and a proposed structure using strontium-doped sodium bismuth titanate electrolytes. Using a functional unit of kg/100 kW of power output for each of the SOFC structures (excluding the interconnects), within a hybrid life cycle analysis framework, the environmental hotspots across the supply chains of each SOFC type are identified, quantified and ranked. The results show the use of these novel material combinations leads to a reduction in embodied materials and toxicological impact but higher electrical energy consumption during fabrication, in comparison to commercial SOFCs. The findings support the move to reduce the operating temperatures of SOFCs using these novel material architectures, which leads to an overall reduction in environmental impact due to the lower operational energy requirement of the chosen material constituents