High Power Density Regenerative Integrated Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) have several fundamental advantages over low temperature fuel cells for potential applications as power storage systems used at high altitudes or in space. These advantages include high power density, high hydrogen production rate, high round-trip efficiency, and long life-cycle. These advantages can lead to a substantially smaller (both weight and volume) system compared with the current regenerative power storage technology based on polymer membrane electrolyte fuel cells. We have recently demonstrated that our high-performance SOFCs work very well in both fuel cell and electrolysis modes. The proposed work is to develop high power density regenerative solid oxide fuel cells based on a novel stack design and using modified SOFC electrodes. The novel design combines the key advantages of both tubular and planar SOFCs, thus potentially allowing for development of simple robust regenerative solid oxide fuel cell systems that can produce pressurized hydrogen and oxygen.