Scientific challenges in scaling up of metal-supported solid oxide fuel cell size and production volume

拟议的研究项目旨在解决在扩大固体氧化物燃料电池(SOFC)面积和设计有利于扩大到大批量的制造工艺方面出现的一些科学挑战。在航空航天、柴油发动机和印刷辊制造行业中，大量工业生产中使用等离子喷射沉积来制造涂层是很成熟的。在这些应用中，等离子喷涂制造已被证明具有成本效益，从而实现了原料粉末的高沉积效率和经济的大规模生产。这项技术也非常有利于自动化生产线的使用。然而，使用等离子喷涂制造SOFC带来了额外的科学挑战，需要解决这些挑战，以便使该过程大规模经济。具体地说，为了制造用于燃料电池电极的具有高孔隙率(大约30-35%)的复合涂层，需要使用目前导致原料利用效率低于由单一材料组合物制成的具有低到中等孔隙率值(5-15%)的涂层的工艺条件。拟议的项目旨在解决这些科学挑战，以便开发一种实验室规模的制造工艺，具有高涂层沉积效率，用于制造具有复合材料成分以及非常高和非常低孔隙率的SOFC组件。必须在实验室规模上开发和演示这种工艺，然后才能使其在大规模制造中可行，并在此过程中在加拿大创造就业机会和经济效益。

The proposed research project aims to address some of the scientific challenges that arise in scaling up both the area of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and in designing a manufacturing process that is conducive to being scaled up to large volumes. The use of plasma spray deposition for the fabrication of coatings at large industrial production volumes is well-established in the aerospace, diesel engine, and print roll manufacturing industries. In these applications, plasma spray manufacturing has proven to be cost-effective, allowing for high deposition efficiencies of feedstock powder and economical large-scale production. The technique is also highly conducive to the use of automated production lines. However, the use of plasma spraying for the fabrication of SOFCs creates additional scientific challenges that need to be addressed in order to make the process economical on a large scale. Specifically, the need to fabricate composite coatings with high porosity(approximately30-35%) for the fuel cell electrodes requires the use of processing conditions that currently result in less efficient utilization of feedstock material than in the production of coatings made from a single composition of material and with low-to-moderate porosity values (5-15%). The proposed project seeks to address those scientific challenges in order to develop a manufacturing process at the laboratory scale with high coating deposition efficiency for the fabrication of SOFC components with composite material compositions and both very high and very low porosities. Such a process must be developed and demonstrated at the laboratory scale before it can be made viable at large manufacturing volumes, generating jobs and economic benefits within Canada in the process.