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Forschungszentrum Jülich is performing long‐term SOFC stack tests for more than 17 years. Within the European project Real‐SOFC (2004–2008) durability tests operating at 700 °C were started with two short stacks which reached the first milestone of 10,000 h in November 2008. The operation of one stack, clearly showing progressive degradation over the last 5,000 h, was terminated after more than 2 years for inspection of the status of the components and interfaces. The second stack is now in operation for more than 5 years having reached 43,800 h in August 2012. The average voltage degradation over the full duration was about 1% per 1,000 h. Another short stack with plasma sprayed protective coatings on the air side of the interconnects is running for more than 14,000 h, showing about 0.12% voltage degradation per 1,000 h. A stack with a similar configuration but LSM cathodes, operated at a temperature of 800 °C, broke down after 2 years. As reason for the break‐down manganese diffusion from the LSM cathode into the 8YSZ electrolyte could be determined by post‐test analysis. All these short stacks have been tested with humidified hydrogen at a fuel utilization of 40% and with dry air. In the meantime a 2.6 kW stack was operated on internally reformed methane for 4,500 h showing about 0.3% voltage degradation per 1,000 h.

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Benefiting from a strong cooperation with Forschungszentrum Jülich, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), and AVL List GmbH respectively, Plansee has been focusing on the development and industrialization of metal-supported SOFC and components for mobile applications. In the scope of some challenging development projects a novel MSC configuration and a first pilot fabrication route could be demonstrated successfully. Currently, the work is ongoing towards a continuous and reliable manufacturing of standard cells as well as the demonstration of system-relevant stack tests. This paper gives an overview about the latest results in cell and stack development as well as about the manufacturing route for cost-effective metal-supported cells.

Abstract:In this study we report on the development and operational data of a metal-supported solid oxide fuel cell with a thin film electrolyte under varying conditions. The metal-ceramic structure was developed for a mobile auxiliary power unit and offers power densities of 1 W/cm 2 at 800 • C, as well as robustness under mechanical, thermal and chemical stresses. A dense and thin yttria-doped zirconia layer was applied to a nanoporous nickel/zirconia anode using a scalable adapted gas-flow sputter process, which allowed the homogeneous coating of areas up to 100 cm 2 . The cell performance is presented for single cells and for stack operation, both in lightweight and stationary stack designs. The results from short-term operation indicate that this cell technology may be a very suitable alternative for mobile applications.