[nanoPost] Solid Oxide Fuel Cells for co-generation in waste water treatment plants

Research Centre Canada

Solid Oxide Fuel Cell program is aimed at improving durability and lowering costs by reducing operating temperatures and system complexity. The program is focused on developing next generation cells and stacks that permit direct oxidation of practical hydrocarbon fuels containing sulphur and other impurities. This involves the development of novel architectures, novel materials and novel processes.

Novel materials include nano-materials, metal ceramics systems and catalysts. Novel processes include plasma deposition and reactive spray deposition techniques, which are amiable to continuous manufacturing as compared to the traditional tape casting and screen-printing techniques which are batch oriented and difficult to control. The SOFC program is focused around a single umbrella project: Low Temperature SOFC.

The SOFC program has already achieved a power density of 900 mW/cm² and 640 mW/cm² for a single cell operating at 600°C while directly using hydrogen and a mixture of methanol and water respectively. The next steps are to scale up the cell size and developing a fully operational stack.