Development of Metal-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

A novel generation of a thin-film, metal supported solid oxide fuel cell (MSC) has been developed and demonstrated in the scope of the NextGen MSC project (funded by the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology) by Plansee, Forschungszentrum Jülich (FZ-J), and the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), respectively. In the scope of this work, due to consequent electrolyte and electrode development, a novel cell configuration, based on Plansee's well-known porous FeCr alloy as mechanical cell support, could be established. Thus, first cell measurements at KIT indicate the feasibility and the reliability of the established cell manufacturing process. The tested cell has shown a current density of 1.52 A/cm² at 0.7 V and 820 °C. This corresponds with an area specific cell performance of 1,064 mW/cm2. Furthermore, during a cell operation time of approx. 300 hrs., the cell degradation was relatively low.