Renewable Energy Storage Buffering with Metal-Supported Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells with Rapid Cycling Ability

太阳能或风能等可再生能源有可能显著减少空气污染和二氧化碳排放，同时延长化石燃料储备的使用寿命。然而，能源是间歇性的，因此需要存储缓冲器，以便提供足够的可再生能源。与电池相比，可以可逆地作为电解电池（SOEC）和燃料电池（SOFC）操作的固体氧化物电池可以潜在地提高存储缓冲技术的寿命，并且与低温电解电池相比，可以提高能量存储和释放的效率，这是因为它们的动力学损失较低，并且能够使用更大比例的热而不是电作为用于氢气生产的能量输入。这种热量可能来自电池在运行期间的电阻加热和动力学损失，来自外部太阳能集中器（例如太阳能热电厂中使用的太阳能集中器），来自地热源，或来自核电站或工业设施的废热。然而，必须克服几个关键挑战，以提高SOEC的性能和寿命，包括响应风能和太阳能可用性变化的热和负载循环，以及比SOFC更严重的性能退化。传统的陶瓷或金属陶瓷支撑的SOEC设计难以快速循环，因此SOEC在核电站中的使用更为普遍。然而，金属支撑的SOEC架构有可能促进更快的热循环和负载循环，从而有可能使SOEC用于可再生能源存储。该计划将研究金属支撑的SOEC，以了解它们在循环操作条件下的能力，包括温度和电流。将研究和诊断SOEC特有的降解模式，并将利用对SOEC性能和降解机制的深入了解来确定改善具有金属支撑结构的SOEC性能的策略，使其更适合作为可再生能源存储缓冲器。

Renewable energy sources such as solar or wind power have the potential to significantly reduce air pollution and CO2 emissions while extending the lifetime of fossil fuel reserves. However, the energy sources are intermittent, so storage buffers are needed in order to provide sufficient availability of renewable power. Solid oxide cells that can operate reversibly as electrolysis cells (SOECs) and fuel cells (SOFCs) could potentially improve the longevity of storage buffer technology compared to batteries and improve the efficiency of energy storage and release compared to low temperature electrolysis cells, due to their lower kinetic losses and ability to use a greater proportion of heat rather than electricity as the energy input for hydrogen production. This heat can originate from resistance heating and kinetic losses in the cells during their operation, from external solar concentrators (such as those used in solar thermal plants), from geothermal sources, or from waste heat from nuclear power plants or industrial facilities. However several key challenges must be overcome to improve the performance and longevity of SOECs, including thermal and load cycling in response to variations in wind and solar power availability and more severe performance degradation than in SOFCs. Traditional ceramic- or cermet-supported SOEC designs are difficult to cycle rapidly, so use of SOECs has been more common in conjunction with nuclear power plants. However, a metal-supported SOEC architecture has the potential to facilitate much more rapid thermal and load cycling, thus potentially enabling SOECs to be used for renewable energy storage. The program will investigate metal-supported SOECs to understand their capabilities in cyclic operation conditions, both in terms of temperature and current. Degradation modes specific to SOECs will be investigated and diagnosed, and the insights gained into SOEC performance and degradation mechanisms will be used to identify strategies to improve the performance of SOECs with a metal-supported architecture to make them better suited as renewable energy storage buffers.