Freeze Casting of Tubular Sulfur Tolerant Materials for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Solid oxide fuel cells have long suffered from degradation due to impurities in the fuel and complexities associated with dissimilar materials and high operating temperatures. This degradation lowers the usable cell power output and requires ancillary equipment for fuel sulfur removal and reformation. A unique microstructure for the tubular anode will be produced using a novel freeze-casting technique, which will increase the cell triple phase boundary area and result in higher power density. An infiltration of the freeze-cast anode with a newly discovered mixed metal oxide catalyst promises to significantly increase the sulfur and coking tolerance of the anode. In the proposed effort, anode tubes will be produced using varying freeze casting formulations and parameters to optimize the pore morphology and then infiltrated with the novel catalyst material. Single-cell performance tests will be completed, and a conceptual 250W man-portable design will be developed.