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Title: High-temperature, solid oxide electrolyte fuel cell power generation system. Quarterly report, September 1, 1980-November 30, 1980

Technical Report ·
OSTI ID:6618622

Development of porous support tubes includes techniques to achieve one-end-closed tubes that are needed for an improved cell design which has the air electrode closest to the porous support tube. Work continues on investigating alternate air electrode candidate materials which must have similar thermal expansion to the porous support tube and which will be potentially lower in cost. Such materials must withstand the processing conditions during high-temperature EVD fabrication of the solid electrolyte and interconnection. New cell stacks were tested with various air electrode materials. Of these, stacks with flame sprayed La/sub 0/ /sub 8/Ca/sub 0/ /sub 2/CoO/sub 3/ cathodes appeared most promising in initial tests. However, improvements must be made to achieve better thermal expansion characteristics of this material. Sulfidation studies by microweighting of compacted nickel powder indicate that the small loss of performance, as seen in cell stack No. 8 (tested at 1000/sup 0/C for 750 hours in 15% CO + H/sub 2//50 ppM H/sub 2/S/bal CO/sub 2/ fuel), is due to adsorption of H/sub 2/S, S/sub 2/ or SO/sub 2/ species on the nickel of the nickel-cermet fuel electrode. Dc and ac impedance measurements were made on cell stack (No. 9) which had been power-tested previously. These analytical measurements serve to verify and improve existing equivalent circuits for cell stacks as well as lead toward better choice of reactant concentrations for cell and stack testing.

Research Organization:
Westinghouse Electric Corp., Pittsburgh, PA (USA). Research and Development Center
DOE Contract Number:
AC02-80ET17089
OSTI ID:
6618622
Report Number(s):
DOE/ET/17089-3; ON: DE84015927
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English