Solid oxide fuel cells

Due to their clean and silent operation, high efficiencies and impurity tolerance, solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are one of the most promising technologies for emission-free electric power production. The operation temperature of ~500-800 °C boosts the kinetics, mitigates (electro)catalyst poisoning, and allows for an effective heat removal. Compared to low-temperature fuel cells, an essential advantage of SOFCs is their fuel flexibility, allowing for their operation on a great variety of alternative fuels such as CH4, biogas or NH3 (cf. Direct-NH3-SOFC in Figure). In this area, we develop and apply detailed multi-scale modeling tools that achieve a direct linkage between microscopic and macroscopic parameters to optimize the performance and design of SOFCs for both stationary and mobile applications.

Contact: Lukas Wehrle, Oscar Furst, Paul Jakob Jägerfeld, Olaf Deutschmann

Funding: Internal Funding

Collaborations:

  • Prof. Dr. Robert J. Braun (Colorado School of Mines)
  • Prof. Dr. Aayan Banerjee (University of Twente)
  • Prof. Dr. Nigel Brandon (Imperial College London)
  • Dr. Yuqing Wang (Beijing Institute of Technology)

Related Publications:

L. Wehrle, A. Ashar, O. Deutschmann, R. Braun. Modeling High-Power Density Ceria-Based Direct Ammonia Fueled SOFC Stacks for Mobile Applications. ECS Transactions 111 (2023), 753-762. DOI: 10.1149/11106.0753ecst

A. Ashar, L. Wehrle, O. Deutschmann, R. Braun. Direct Ammonia SOFC-Gas Turbine Hybrid Systems Modeling for Heavy-Duty Transportation Sector. ECS Transactions 111 (2023), 2103-2110. DOI: 10.1149/11106.2103ecst

L. Wehrle, Y. Wang, P. Boldrin, Nigel P. Brandon, O. Deutschmann, A. Banerjee. Optimizing Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Performance to Re-evaluate Its Role in the Mobility Sector. ACS Environmental Au 2 (2021), 42-64. DOI: 10.1021/acsenvironau.1c00014

Y. Wang, L. Wehrle, A. Banerjee, Y. Shi, O. Deutschmann. Analysis of a biogas-fed SOFC CHP system based on multi-scale hierarchical modeling. Renewable Energy 163 (2021), 78-87. DOI: 10.1016/j.renene.2020.08.091

SOFCs
Solid oxide fuel cells