Summary Report on Solid-oxide Electrolysis Cell Testing and Development

Technical Report · Sun Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2012

DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1042374· OSTI ID:1042374

O'Brien, James E. ^[1]; Zhang, X. ^[1]; O'Brien, R, C, ^[1]; Hawkes, G. L. ^[1]; Hartvigsen, J. J. ^[2]; Elangovan, E. ^[2]; Tao, G. ^[3]; Yildiz, B. ^[4]; Singh, P. ^[5]; Petigny, N. ^[6]; Farmer, S. ^[7]

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1. Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
2. Ceramatec, Inc., West Valley City, UT (United States
3. Materials & Systems Research, Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
4. Massachusetts Inst. of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, MA (United States)
5. Univ. of Connecticut, Storrs, CT (United States)
6. Saint-Gobain Ceramics & Plastics, Inc., Malvern, PA (United States)
7. NASA Glenn Research Center, Cleveland, OH (United States)

Idaho National Laboratory (INL) has been researching the application of solid-oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) for large-scale hydrogen production from steam over a temperature range of 800 to 900°C. From 2003 to 2009, this work was sponsored by the United States Department of Energy Nuclear Hydrogen Initiative, under the Office of Nuclear Energy. Starting in 2010, the high-temperature electrolysis (HTE) research program has been sponsored by the INL Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project. This report provides a summaryof program activities performed in Fiscal Year (FY) 2011 and the first quarter of FY-12, with a focus on small-scale testing and cell development activities. HTE research priorities during this period have included the development and testing of SOEC and stack designs that exhibit high-efficiency initial performance and low, long-term degradation rates. This report includes contributions from INL and five industry partners: Materials and Systems Research, Incorporated (MSRI); Versa Power Systems, Incorporated (VPS); Ceramatec, Incorporated; National Aeronautics and Space Administration - Glenn Research Center (NASA - GRC); and the St. Gobain Advanced Materials Division. These industry partners have developed SOEC cells and stacks for in-house testing in the electrolysis mode and independent testing at INL. Additional fundamental research and post-test physical examinations have been performed at two university partners: Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and the University of Connecticut. Summaries of these activities and test results are also presented in this report.

• Research Organization: Idaho National Laboratory (INL), Idaho Falls, ID (United States)
• Sponsoring Organization: USDOE Office of Nuclear Energy (NE)
• DOE Contract Number: AC07-05ID14517
• OSTI ID: 1042374
• Report Number(s): INL/EXT--11-24261
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

08 HYDROGEN
11 NUCLEAR FUEL CYCLE AND FUEL MATERIALS
24 POWER TRANSMISSION AND DISTRIBUTION
ELECTROLYSIS
HYDROGEN
HYDROGEN PRODUCTION
IDAHO NATIONAL LABORATORY
NASA
NGNP
NUCLEAR ENERGY
Next Generation Nuclear Plant Project
PERFORMANCE
POWER SYSTEMS
RESEARCH PROGRAMS
STEAM
TESTING
VHTR
Very High Temperature Reactor