Open Competition 1 - Electronics and Photonics

Scalable Planar Solid-Oxide Fuel Cell Technology for Beyond 200kW

Sponsor: Corning Incorporated

• Project Performance Period: 12/1/2004 - 11/30/2007
• Total project (est.): $16,030,864.00
• Requested ATP funds: $7,996,219.00

Soaring energy prices, recurring brownouts and blackouts, air pollution concerns, and advances in materials technology have spurred a renewed interest in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), the most promising technology for future high-efficiency generation of electricity. The benefits of SOFC technology have yet to be realized, primarily due to lack of robust scalability to high power levels because of problems with thermal stress on the cells. Corning Incorporated and ENrG, Inc. (Buffalo, N.Y.) have jointly proposed a novel approach to planar SOFCs that will result in larger, reliable, and cost-effective SOFC systems. The approach, based on innovations in thin solid electrolyte technology, is thermally and mechanically stable by inherent design, permitting individual planar fuel cell layers of much greater area than in competing approaches. When integrated into stacks, the proposed technology is ideally suited to power generation in the 200 kilowatt (kW) range, where a large percentage of the potential stationary primary power and cogeneration (use of otherwise wasted heat from the high operating temperatures of a fuel cell to make electricity) applications lie. These stacks will be sold to electricity-generation equipment suppliers. The project team expects this technology to drive a new industry in electricity-generating appliances that combine the efficiency of large-scale generating plants with the smaller scale needed for onsite generation applications. The two main benefits to the United States resulting from this project will be the aggregate energy savings resulting from higher generating efficiency and the creation of an important new export category. (China, alone, is expected to need more than $400 billion of generation equipment in the next 15 years.) Moving to larger-area, ultrathin, electrolyte-based devices involves risks in fabrication, handling, and long-term performance and requires significant resources for modeling and testing. The project will require fabricating extremely thin ceramic sheets in sizes never before achieved, while holding critical tolerances to a few hundred micrometers. Considerable research, development, and commercialization efforts are needed before SOFC technology provides the return expected by private investors. Support from ATP will provide the leap in process technology research required before economically viable SOFC electric generation systems large enough to serve commercial and industrial markets can be manufactured. If successful, the technology will enable cost-effective SOFC power systems for commercial sites that consume a capacity of 50,000 MW. Replacing this amount of capacity with the new fuel cells would save the nation $5.4 billion in energy efficiency alone, as well as enabling more distributed power generation capabilities, reduce the cost of investment in power generation and strains on the national power grid.

For project information:

Monica L. Ott, (607) 974-8769
OttML@corning.com

Active Project Participants

• ENrG, Inc. (Buffalo, NY)
  [Original, Active Member]
  

ATP Project Manager

Gerald Castellucci, (301) 975-2435
gerald.castellucci@nist.gov