DK-SOFC b, long term development

The overall purpose of the Danish SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell) programme is to commercialize Danish SOFC technology. The present one-year project forms a part of a multi-year effort. The focus is on the following problems: 1) Bringing down the area-specific internal resistance (ASR) to enable the SOFC stack to operate at 550-650 deg. C. The electrodes of the current, second generation cell have at present an ASR at 600 deg C which is much too high. 2) Improving the cell lifetime, such that the degradation over 40,000 hours will be less than 0.25%/1000 h. 3) Improving cell and electrode robustness, both mechanically and chemically, to a point where the cells can withstand, e.g., thermal cycling, chromium oxide fumes from the metallic interconnect on the air electrode, and sulfur compounds in the fuel gas. An important element in this is to develop a metal supported, redox stable third generation cell. 4) Development of electrodes that can tolerate untreated natural gas (i.e., electrodes that tolerate sulfur and precipitation of carbon). However, these final goals will not be reached in the present one-year project. An important part of the project is the building up of know-how and related patents