Georgia Tech discovery offers new fuel cell potential

Atlanta-based Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new ceramic material they think could help expand applications for solid oxide fuels cells.

Solid oxide fuel cells are highly efficient electrochemical generators that produce environmentally friendly electricity directly from currently available fuels (see Delphi, Rochester Institute to develop fuel cells). 

The research team thinks its new mixed ion conductor material could address two problems associated with the cells. It resists sulfur poisoning and coking, or the buildup of carbon.

The material could also allow the fuel cells to function at lower temperatures, which could reduce material and fabrication costs.

“The development of this material suggests that we could have a much less expensive solid oxide fuel cell, and that it could be more compact, which would increase the range of potential applications,” said Meilin Liu, a Georgia Tech professor of materials science and engineering who is leading the research effort, in a news release.

Liu said the new material could allow fuel cells to run with dirty hydrocarbon fuels without the need to clean them and supply water. However, researchers said they still need to prove the material’s long-term durability.

The research is being backed by a program of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Basic Energy Sciences.

In 2008, Australia's Ceramic Fuel Cells signed an agreement to supply Germany's H.C. Starck with its fuel cells as well as to collaborate on fuel cell components. The companies said they planned to work on advanced solid oxide fuel cell components, focusing on anode supported cells (see Ceramic Fuel Cells, H.C. Starck in supply deal).

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