PERFORMANCE AND RELIABILITY OF WESTINGHOUSE AIR ELECTRODE SUPPORTED SOLID OXIDE FUEL-CELL AT ATMOSPHERIC AND ELEVATED PRESSURES

The state-of-the-art solid oxide fuel cell called the air electrode su pported-solid oxide fuel cell (AES-SOFC), developed by Westinghouse, h as shown substantially improved performance and reliability over the p revious zirconia porous support tube (PST) design, This latest generat ion of cells has demonstrated the ability to thermally cycle over 100 times without any performance loss. The AES-SOFC has also demonstrated the ability to operate in cell bundles (3 x 6) under generator condit ions for over 6300 hours without any performance degradation. The numb er of Electrochemical Vapor Deposition (EVD) steps used in the manufac turing of AES-SOFCs has been reduced from three to two in production a nd from three to one in the laboratory resulting in significant manufa cturing cost reductions. The focus of this paper is to describe the pe rformance and reliability of this latest generation of cells under a v ariety of generator operating conditions.