Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC)

The NRC-IFCI Solid Oxide Fuel Cell program is aimed at improving durability and lowering costs by reducing operating temperatures and system complexity. The program is focused on developing next generation cells and stacks that permit direct oxidation of practical hydrocarbon fuels containing sulphur and other impurities. This involves the development of novel architectures, novel materials and novel processes.

Novel materials include nano-materials, metal ceramics systems and catalysts. Novel processes include plasma deposition and reactive spray deposition techniques which are amiable to continuous manufacturing as compared to the traditional tape casting and screen printing techniques which are batch oriented and difficult to control. The SOFC program is focused around a single umbrella project "Low Temperature SOFC".

The SOFC program has already achieved a power density of 900 mW/cm2 and 640 mW/cm2 for a single cell operating at 600° Celsius while directly using hydrogen and a mixture of methanol and water respectively. The next steps are to scale up the cell size and developing a fully operational stack.

For more information on SOFC Fabrication Technologies, Testing and Characterization, Materials and Components, SOFC Equipment that is available and Latest Developments, please click on each respective link.

For further information on the SOFC program at NRC-IFCI, please contact us.