Diego Larrain

• Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne

SOFCpower-HTceramix' mission is to offer new energy solutions to the distributed electricity market based upon its efficient and competitive solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology. The company develops and manufactures SOFC power modules in close collaboration with European heat appliance OEMs and utilities for domestic cogeneration and distribute...

A planar solid oxide fuel cell repeating unit, 50 cm2 in total active electrode size, consisting of an anode supported electrolyte cell bearing two 7mm holes for fuel and air injection, and contacted to two dense metal current collector plates via gas distribution layers, was constructed with the aim of measuring local current densities rather than...

Reliability of SOFC stacks is a complex and key issue. This paper presents a simulation study including some degradation processes, namely, interconnect degradation and the anode reoxidation potential. Quantification for these phenomena has been included in a repeat element model to simulate stack degradation and study the influence of design and o...

Electrical output behaviour obtained on solid oxide fuel cell stacks, based on planar anode supported cells (50 or 100 cm2 active area) and metallic interconnects, is reported. Stacks (1–12 cells) have been operated with cathode air and anode hydrogen flows between 750 and 800 °C operating temperature. At first polarisation, an activation phase (in...

Results on solid oxide fuel cell stacks tested at 800° C with H2 fuel and using planar Ni-zirconia anode supported cells, 80x80x0.2 mm in size, are presented. Modeling and numerical simulation is used to interpret observed results and develop improved designs. Where neccessary, the models are calibrated with additional experimental data. Emphasis i...

Thèse no 3275 sc. EPF Lausanne. Literaturverz. EPFL, Lausanne

Our SOFC stack development technology is based on the unique SOFConnexTM concept, using flexible gas distribution layers between metal sheet interconnect and thin ASE cells. Flexibility is given both in material and design. This ensures proper electrical contact over the whole cell (50 cm2 active), without necessitating restrictive cell fabrication...

This paper presents the modeling strategy developed for the design of a planar solid oxide fuel cell repeat element. Design goal are to reach good performance (power density) and reliability (ie. limit risk of failure and degradation). This challenging problem, involving multiple physical phenomena, different scales (from the pores of the catalyst...

Fundamental and phenomenological models for cells, stacks, and complete systems of PEFC and SOFC are reviewed and their predictive power is assessed by comparing model simulations against experiments. Computationally efficient models suited for engineering design include the (1+1) dimensionality approach, which decouples the membrane in-plane and t...

A tape casting co-sintering route is described in which thin dense layers of LaSrFeCoO3 (LSFC) have been formed on planar, porous MgO substrates 100- 200 micron thick. SEM analysis of the sintered structure showed that it was possible to eliminate most of the residual porosity in the LSFC layer, but maintain a porosity between 25 and 45% in the MgO...

A model for planar solid oxide fuel cell repeat elements and stacks has been developed. Distribution of concentrations, reaction rates and temperatures (both gases and solids) are computed as well as overall performance results. Specific experiments provide inputs to the model by a parameter estimation method. The modeling approach developed allows...

A 3D simulation tool for solid oxide fuel cells is presented. The aim of this work is to predict current density, flow, temperature and concentration fields in order to compare and optimize repeat element geometry for a whole stack. A commercial CFD tool was used, solving mass, momentum and energy equations; whereas chemical kinetic equations are c...

Progress on anode supported cell stacks (SOFCONNEX design, 50 m2 per cell) is presented. A 6-cell stack and a 8 cell-stack were mounted and tested with hydrogen fuel at 800 degre C, yielding 100 W el and 140 W el, corresponding to a power density of 1kW el/L (0.34 W/cm2). Fuel utilisation was 50% and electrical efficiency 25%. A one-cell stack deli...

This paper introduces a novel concept of mini-hybrid solar power plant integrating a field of solar concentrators, two superposed Organic Rankine Cycles (ORC) and a (bio-)Diesel engine. The Organic Rankine Cycles include hermetic scroll expander-generators1 and the sun tracking solar collectors are composed of rows of flat mirror bands (CEP) arrang...

A combined thermal and simple kinetic model is applied to small single solid oxide fuel cell (20 cm2 square cell of anode supported electrolyte with 1 cm2 active area). The aim was to compute the temperature field to analyse the operating conditions of the active area of the cell. The cell is simulated in the conditions used for electrochemical cha...

LENI activities in SOFC are focused on development of a new planar stack concept based on anode supported cells in collaboration with the company HTceramix SA. Modeling of repeat element, stack and systems is starting in parallel. This work presents a model of a SOFC stack in cross flow configuration. Concentrations, temperature and current density...

L’objectif du travail entrepris est de développer un outil permettant la simulation dynamique d’un syteème de pile à combustible à haute température (SOFC). Des modèles génériques ont été développés afin de pouvoir représenter les différents composants du système tels que stack, reformeur échangeurs de chaleur, etc. Une configuration d’un système S...

To improve a SOFC stack design, the application of optimization methods can lead to a significant improvement compared to the simple use of simulation. This paper present how a multi-optimization method is applied to the design decisions on a SOFC repeat element configuration. The goals of the design problem is to increase the power density per uni...