 |
 |
||||||
[Oct 2006]
Ceramic Fuel Cells Develops More Powerful Fuel Cells
CFCL (Ceramic Fuel Cells Ltd), a world leading manufacturer of solid oxide fuel cells and provider of enabling technology for micro-combined heat and power (m-CHP) units, has announced a further major step towards commercialisation with the development of its next generation of fuel cells.
These cells have demonstrated significant performance improvements, particularly in power density, and will be incorporated into m-CHP units to provide clean power for homes. This development builds on CFCL’s extensive fuel cell experience and has been assisted by the company’s in-depth field trials and its work with power company customers.
The new fuel cell and redesigned system components are designed to optimise the efficiency of the fuel cell stack and reduce the system cost in preparation for volume manufacture. The new stack is also more easily integrated into distributed generation appliances. These new cells are more than twice as powerful as CFCL’s current cells and match or exceed other solid oxide fuel cell figures in terms of power density, which is measured by how many milliwatts of electricity are generated by each square centimetre of fuel cell.
Early versions of CFCL’s new cells achieved a power density of more than 200 mW/cm². Current versions of the new cells have doubled that again, bringing the power density to more than 400 mW/cm², and further improvements are expected. Higher power density means that CFCL can produce the same amount of electricity from a much smaller fuel cell stack. A smaller stack is cheaper and much easier to integrate into commercial appliances like m-CHP units. The new cell technology is designed to be highly efficient, with electric efficiency of 50% and significantly better fuel utilisation of up to 85%. The total efficiency of the integrated m-CHP unit will be higher still, as ‘waste’ heat is captured and re-used.
The new fuel cell stacks are designed to produce 1kW of electricity and significantly less than 1kW of heat. Reducing the amount of heat produced by the fuel cell stack means the m-CHP unit can generate efficient baseload electricity all year round. Other types of m-CHP units that produce more heat may have to be left idle – or else waste the heat – for several months each year. The new technology comprises square ceramic fuel cells, arranged in a window-frame display, supported by ceramic anodes and separated by metal interconnect plates. The cells use ‘thin film’ technology, comprising extremely thin electrolytes, which are better at conducting oxygen ions. This increases the amount of electricity that each cell can generate. The new metal-ceramic fuel cell stack combines important technical features and intellectual property drawn from CFCL’s achievements in developing both all-ceramic and metal-ceramic stacks since 1992.
CFCL has also significantly improved several key components that integrate the fuel cell stack into a m-CHP unit. Significant breakthroughs include a 50% smaller steam generator, a 40% smaller heat exchanger and a 75% reduction in the airflow through the system. These achievements will make the m-CHP unit simpler, smaller and more efficient.www.cfcl.com.au
ENDS