Enhancing the lifetime of SOFC stacks for combined heat and power applications

• Forschungsstelle: BFE
• Projektnummer: SI/500084

Kurzbeschreibung (Englisch)

Within the SOF-CH project, progress has been made in the understanding of degradation phenomena on the cell, stack and system level. Cathode degradation was shown to correlate with the layer thickness and the ceramic component of the LSM/Ceramic composite. For the anode, a reorientation of Ni crystals was observed with increasing reduction temperature and the Ni-particle size distribution was changing over time. Significant differences in the degradation behaviour between the state of the art anode materials, Ni/CGO and Ni/YSZ was observed. Tools were developed to study microstructural changes in the anode by image analysis, as a function of the working conditions. The performance of the anode was simulated with a microstructural model. Furthermore, a degradation model, which takes into account the major sources for performance losses, is ready for the validation process. Several other models on the level of the stack and the system were successfully applied. Most of the milestones could be reached, but there are also milestones that have not been accomplished within the project. Important outcomes of the experiments and simulations were published in scientific journals. The project also aimed at the education of scientists and resulted in 5 PhD (nearly) finished theses as well as in Master and Bachelor theses. The project gives valuable input for the industry partners for the understanding of degradation, the quantification of degradation effects and the development of strategies to avoid degradation effects. Although only a few of the findings directly led to improvements on the product level, most of them will probably lead to improved long-term stability of the SOFC stacks in mid- to long-term.