Patent Application
20090035635
The present invention relates to a combination structure between a single cell and an interconnect of solid oxide fuel cell, and more particularly, to a combination structure between a single cell and an interconnect of solid oxide fuel cell in which the electrode and interconnect are sinter-joined to each other by using slurry in a status that a conventional current collector is excluded, thereby improving a strength and a sealing efficiency.
A fuel cell, which directly converts chemical energy into electrical energy, is a new green futuristic energy technology which can generates the electrical energy from materials such as oxygen, hydrogen and the like which is found in abundance on the earth.
In the fuel cell, oxygen is supplied to a cathode and hydrogen is supplied to an anode so that an electrochemical reaction is performed in a reverse way of water electrolysis so as to generate electricity, heat and water, thereby producing the electrical energy without any contaminants.
Since the fuel cell is free from limitation of Carnot cycle efficiency which acts as the limitation in a conventional heat engine, it is possible to increase an efficiency of 40% or more. Further, since only the water is exhausted as emissions, there is not a risk of environmental pollution. Furthermore, since, unlike in the conventional heat engine, there is not a necessity of a place for mechanical motion, it has some advantages of reducing a size and a noise. Therefore, the fuel cell technologies (e.g. material, fabrication, etc) are actively investigated at many famous laboratories all over the world at present.
According to a kind of electrolyte used therein, the fuel cell is classified into a PAFC (Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cell), a MCFC (Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell), a SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell), a PEMFC (Polymer Electrolyte Membrane Fuel Cell), a DMFC (Direct Methanol Fuel Cell) and an AFC (Alkaline Fuel Cell) which are already being used or developed. Characteristics thereof will be described in a table.
As described in the table, the fuel cells have various ranges of output power and applications and the like. Thus, a user can selectively use one of the fuel cells for various purposes. Particularly, in the SOFC, it is easy to control positioning of the electrolyte. Further, since a position of the electrolyte is fixed, there is no a risk that the electrolyte is dried up. Furthermore, it has a long life span due to weak corrosiveness. Therefore, the SOFC is widely used for distributed power generation, commercial and domestic purposes and the like.
In the operation principle of SOFC, when oxygen is supplied to the cathode and hydrogen is supplied to the anode, the reaction is performed as follows:
Reaction in the anode:
2H2+2O2−→2H2O+4e−
Reaction in the cathode:
O2+4e−→2O2−
In general, the SOFC uses YSZ (yttria-stabilized zirconia) as the electrolyte, Ni-YSZ cermet as the anode, perovskite material as the cathode and oxygen ions as the electrolytic ion.
Meanwhile, since the fuel cell can not obtain a sufficient voltage with only a single cell, a stacking of single cells should be introduced.
The SOFC is capable of filling the various requirements in various aspects such as power output characteristic, long-term operation characteristic, thermal cycle characteristic and so on. However, the problems of sealing and mechanical strength are not yet solved. That is, the sealing is a difficult work because of the combination of the ceramic components each other and this makes it difficult to increase an efficiency of fabrication and operation, and the mechanical strength is weak and it may be damaged even by thermally dynamic operation or small external shock. In order to solve the above problems, there have been developed various types of metal-supported SOFCs which are fabricated by a method which coats ceramic components on a porous or pin-holed metallic support, a method in which a porous metal support is semi-sintered and then the ceramic components are coated and sintered on the semi-sintered metal simultaneously, a method in which the ceramic components and metal powder are monolithically sintered by using a powder metallurgy method
However, the metal-supported SOFC also has a difficulty in the aspects of a scale up issue and a fabricating cost due to a characteristic of the fabricating method thereof. Particularly, the current collector 40 is disposed between the single cell 2 and the interconnect 50 so as to improve electrical property, but since the current collector 40 has a certain shape, there is a structural limitation in increasing current collecting property and sealing efficiency.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a combination structure of a solid oxide fuel cell between an electrode and an interconnect which can considerably increase a structural and mechanical strength, a sealing efficiency and productivity of a fuel cell stack with keeping a role of the current collection.
To achieve the object, there is provided a combination structure between a single cell 2000 and an interconnect 500 of a solid oxide fuel cell 1000 which comprises electrolyte 100, and an anode 200 and a cathode 300 which are respectively contacted with both sides of the electrolyte 100; and an interconnect 500 which are formed at both sides of the single cell 2000 and has a cathode 510 for supplying air to the cathode 300 and an anode passage 520 for supplying fuel to the anode 200, wherein one or both sides of the single cell 2000 are directly combined with the interconnect 500.
Further, the single cell 2000 and the interconnect 500 of the solid oxide fuel cell 1000 are combined by using slurry as an adhesive 900 and then sintered.
Further, the slurry has a porous and electrically conductive property, and the slurry is a mixture of a metal, ceramic, or cermet, and the adhesive 900 is a cermet adhesive in which tiny amounts of NiO/YSZ and ferrite-based metal are mixed.
Furthermore, the sintering is performed at a temperature of 1300 to 1500° C. after putting the single cell 1000 on the adhesive-coated interconnect 500.
In addition, the interconnect 500 is a metallic support having a metallic property.
And the fuel cell 1000 is layered in a stack type.
Further, the unit cell 100 is a metallic support.
According to the present invention, the single cell and the interconnect of the SOFC is combined by excluding the conventional current collector and using the slurry as an adhesive, thereby improving the sealing efficiency therebetween and also considerably increasing the mechanical strength of the fuel cell stack.
Practical and presently preferred embodiments of the present invention are illustrative with reference to the accompanied drawings.
However, it will be appreciated that those skilled in the art, on consideration of this disclosure, may make modifications and improvements within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
According to a combination structure between a single cell 2000 and an interconnect 500 of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) 1000 of the present invention, the SOFC 100 includes the single cell 2000 having electrolyte 100 and an anode 200 and a cathode 300 which are respectively contacted with both sides of the electrolyte 100; and an interconnect 500 which are formed at both sides of the single cell 2000 and has a cathode passage 510 for supplying air to the cathode 300 and an anode passage 520 for supplying fuel to the anode 200. In the SOFC 1000, one or both sides of the single cell 2000 are directly combined with the interconnect 500.
That is, in the combination structure between the electrodes 200 and 300 and the interconnect of the SOFC 1000, the single cell 200 is directly combined with the interconnect in a status of excluding a current collector 400.
Herein, one or both sides of the single cell 200 mean the cathode 300 or the anode 200, or both of the cathode 300 and the anode 200.
The single cell 2000 and interconnect 500 can be combined by a sintering method using slurry as an adhesive 900. According to the present invention, the combining may be performed by other physical or chemical method.
In a case that the slurry is used as the adhesive 900, the slurry as the adhesive 900 has a property of a metal and/or ceramic, preferably, the slurry has a porous conductive property so that the fuel supplied through the anode passage 520 can be flowed.
In the combination structure between the single cell 2000 and the interconnect 500 of the SOFC 1000 of the present invention shown in
Therefore, the combination structure between the single cell 2000 and the interconnect 500 of the SOFC 1000 has advantages of further reinforcing the mechanical strength and solving the sealing and current collecting efficiency problem generated by using the conventional current collector.
Hereinafter, a method of fabricating the fuel cell stack according to the present invention will be fully described. The ceramic elements of anode 200 and the electrolyte 100 are stacked by using a tape casting process. It is preferable that YSZ (Tosoh TZ-8Y) is used as the electrolyte 100, and NiO and YSZ (Tosoh TZ-8Y) is mixed in a ratio of 6:4 and used as the anode 200. Slurry for the tape casting is obtained by mixing Butvar B-98 as binder of 15% weight, polyvinylpyrrolidone as dispersant of 2% weight, polyethylene glycol as plasticizer of 10% weight and S-NECS as a solvent of 100% weight with respect to each powder and then ball-milling for 48 hours. After de-airing the slurry, a ceramic sheet is secured by using a tape caster having a height of 150 μm or 250 μm. And the stacking process is performed according to the application and then the sintering is performed for 4 hours at a temperature of 1500° C. so as to obtain the dense electrolyte 100 and ceramic aggregate of the anode 200 having some pores. A circular STS430 plate having a diameter of 28 mm and a thickness of 1 mm is used as a metallic support for the interconnect 500. The passage 520 having a width of 0.4 mm is formed at the metal plate. A cermet adhesive 900 in which tiny amounts of NiO/YSZ and ferrite-based metal are mixed is coated on the interconnect 500, and the electrolyte 100 and the ceramic aggregate of the anode 200 are provided thereon and then sintered for about 10 hours at a temperature of 1400° C. so as to secure a metal supported unit cell 2000. As shown in
In the embodiment of the present invention, there is provided a sintering method using the slurry as an adhesive 900 for combining the single cell 2000 and the interconnect 500. Furthermore, there may be also provided other physical or chemical methods which use the porous adhesive 900 having a proper thermal and electrical property.
In the combination structure of the present invention, the fuel cell stack has an excellent mechanical strength. The electrode 200 and the interconnect 500 are combined by excluding the current collector 400 which is lack of structural stability and which is not of help to reinforce the entire strength of the stack but by using the adhesive 900 which has porosity, conductivity and water repellency, thereby improving the mechanical strength and the sealing efficiency and also providing excellent properties in the aspects of the large surface area and the fabricating cost.
The SOFC employing the combination structure between the electrode and the interconnect is formed into a stack shape, thereby being used in various fields of Distributed power generation, commercial and domestic purposes and the like.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the conceptions and specific embodiments disclosed in the foregoing description may be readily utilized as a basis for modifying or designing other embodiments for carrying out the same purposes of the present invention. Those skilled in the art will also appreciate that such equivalent embodiments do not depart from the spirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the appended claims.
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10-2007-0076133 | Jul 2007 | KR | national |
