Novel diagnostic tools and techniques for monitoring and control of SOFC stacks - understanding mechanical and structural change

韩国在固体氧化物燃料电池（SOFC）技术的部署和推广方面拥有世界领先的专业知识。英国在支撑SOFC材料和器件的科学和工程方面拥有世界一流的专业知识。由HK Oil和其他公司进行的大规模试验表明，韩国正在开发的阳极支撑SOFC堆在稳态运行条件下的耐久性不理想，并且耐热循环能力差。这反映了这样一个事实，即扩大SOFC技术的规模会带来额外的挑战，特别是与燃料电池堆内反应物、产物和温度的不均匀分布相关的挑战。一些稳态退化可归因于阴极中毒、相偏析和阳极Ni粗化等经典SOFC问题。然而，快速失效，循环不耐受和性能的阶跃变化最有可能与机械问题有关。因此，了解堆中电池在不同条件下和循环过程中的热环境和机械环境是改进设计和系统运行机制以获得最大耐用性的关键，因为这些可能表现为用于SOFC制造的陶瓷材料中额外的机械和化学应变，导致降解和极端情况下的故障。SOFC堆栈和系统的商业开发需要降低降解率，并增加平均故障时间。为了解决这个问题，有必要监测燃料电池堆内部的状况，将这些状况与健康状态联系起来，然后利用这些信息更好地控制系统，以维持燃料电池堆的寿命，或者设计一个可控的关闭，以便更换组件，延长系统寿命。这些先进的监测技术与经过验证的预测模拟能力相结合，将允许开发出具有高耐久性和高性能的新单元和堆栈配置。该提案旨在开发两种由英国合作伙伴首创的新型诊断技术，并将其应用于韩国合作伙伴的先进细胞检测和表征。测量结果用于验证在英国开发的模型，将测量数据与退化和失效模式联系起来，并将其传递给韩国合作伙伴，以提供实时监测和控制SOFC堆栈的潜力。这将为以最省时的方式改进和开发下一代SOFC系统提供宝贵的理解，并对英国和其他国际开发商产生更广泛的影响。该项目将支持英国和韩国合作伙伴之间的研究人员交流，由英国的两个研究研讨会和韩国的一个研究研讨会提供支持。

The Republic of Korea has world leading expertise in the deployment and scale up of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) technologies. The UK has world class expertise in underpinning science and engineering of SOFC materials and devices. Large-scale trials by HK Oil and others have revealed unsatisfactory durability at steady state operating conditions in the anode supported SOFC stacks under development in Korea, as well as poor tolerance to thermal cycling. This reflects that fact that scaling up SOFC technology introduces additional challenges related (in particular) to non-uniform distribution of reactants, products and temperature within the fuel cell stack. Some steady state degradation can be attributed to classical SOFC issues of cathode poisoning, phase segregation and anode Ni coarsening. However, rapid failure, cycling intolerance and step changes in performance are most likely associated with mechanical issues. Understanding the thermal and mechanical environment of the cells in a stack under different conditions and during cycling is therefore key to improving the design and the operating regime of the system to give maximum durability, as these can manifest as additional mechanical and chemical strains within the ceramic materials used for SOFC fabrication, resulting in degradation and in extreme cases failure. Commercial development of SOFC stacks and systems requires a reduction in degradation rate, and an increase to mean time to failure.To address this it is necessary to be both able to monitor the conditions within the fuel cell stack, relating these to state of health, and then using this information to better control the system to maintain stack life, or engineer a controlled shut down so that components can be replaced, extending system life. These advanced monitoring techniques when coupled with validated predictive simulation capability will allow new cell and stack configurations to be developed for high durability and performance.This proposal seeks to develop two novel diagnostic techniques, pioneered by UK partners, and apply them to advanced cell testing and characterisation at partners in Korea . The measurements are used to validate models developed in the UK to relate the measured data to degradation and failure modes, transferring this to Korean partners to offer the potential for real time monitoring and control of SOFC stacks. This will give valuable understanding required to refine and develop the next generation of SOFC systems in the most time efficient manner, and have wider impact on UK and other international developers. The programme will support an exchange of researchers between the UK and Korean partners, supported by two research workshops in the UK, and one in Korea.