SBIR/STTR Award attributes
Statement of Problem or Situation that is Being Addressed: The degradation of the hydrogen fuel electrode in solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) during high-steam conditions severely limits the large-scale SOEC commercial viability. Nickel migration in the fuel electrode due to long term operation at high overpotential reduces the amount of triple phase boundaries (TPBs), resulting in irreversible loss of electrochemical performance. This is a critical issue that needs to be resolved in order to facilitate the wide-spread adoption of SOECs, which offers an unrivaled conversion efficiency of ~90%. Statement of How Problem or Situation is Being Addressed: RMD Inc. will address this challenge with the Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) of novel anchoring layer within the porous hydrogen fuel electrode that will prevent the nickel migration. This approach will not only enhance the SOEC electrode lifetime but will also maintain the overall density of the TPBs from changing. An ALD method is uniquely capable of forming thin anchoring layer while being porous to maintain access by steam to the TPB for electrolysis of occur. What is to be done in Phase I? RMD Inc. will deposit at fuel electrode scaffolds in button cells (provide by UPenn), will validate the performance of coated fuel electrode compared to bare through representative electrolysis testing in high steam conditions at 700ºC (at UPenn), and will evaluate and create a plan of process integration for manufacturing scale-up. The resulting data will demonstrate feasibility of the proposed approach. Commercial Applications and Other Benefits: The proposed development of the chemical anchor for the fuel electrode in SOECs will improve the long-term stability of SOECs, providing an efficient method of storing the excess energy from various low-cost and renewable electricity sources as hydrogen fuel, as well as the reverse in fuel cell mode to produce energy from chemical fuels. Additionally, SOECs can be utilized to generate oxygen for life support in the US manned space-flight programs and to generate oxygen from Mars’ atmosphere.
