Japanese Institute Develops Highly Efficient Micro Fuel Cell

The National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology of Japan (AIST) has developed a highly efficient micro-sized solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a tubular shape, it was announced on January 18, 2006. Although SOFCs are the most efficient type of fuel cells, the application of conventional SOFCs has been limited mostly to large-scale power systems due to their high operating temperatures, usually 800 to 900 degrees C. With its advanced ceramic processing technology, AIST has succeeded in developing the micro tubular SOFC that can operate at temperatures as low as 500 to 600 degrees C.

The newly developed micro SOFC is one centimeter long, with a diameter of 0.8 to 1.6 millimeters. Its ceramic electrodes have been optimized by using an electrolyte made of ceria-based ion conductive ceramics with high oxygen ion conductivity at lower temperatures. A cell with a diameter of 1.6 millimeters, for example, can generate 0.17 to one watt of electricity per square centimeter when hydrogen is supplied to it at a temperature of 450 to 570 degrees C. This is one of the highest levels of energy conversion that can be obtained with SOFCs using ceria-based electrolytes.

The institute estimates that a fuel cell stack composed of about a hundred 0.8 mm-diameter SOFCs per cubic centimeter can generate 15 watts of electricity at an operating temperature of 550 degrees C. This indicates that AIST's micro SOFC will be able to have a wide variety of applications, including distributed power sources for homes and portable electronic devices, and auxiliary power units for vehicles. AIST aims to further develop technologies to put cells together and fabricate stack modules that can be started and shut down rapidly.

http://www.aist.go.jp/aist_e/latest_research/2006/20060216/
20060216.html

Posted: 2006/05/10 10:55:18 AM
Japanese version