The most fundamental way to improve heat management in solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems is to minimize waste heat production through good electrochemical performance. However, at the operating point for most SOFC stacks, chemical, electrochemical, and transport losses result in the production of significant amounts of heat. In the larger systems, this heat tends to increase the stack temperature excessively - unless the stack is cooled with large amounts of excess air that increase the size and cost of system components. In smaller systems, the heat can be lost to the surroundings so rapidly that using insulation to maintain the system in a thermally self-sustained condition is difficult and expensive.

Under the sponsorship of the California Energy Commission (CEC) and in coordination with a DOE Solid State Energy Conversion (SECA) Program with Fuel Cell Energy (FCE), the Gas Technology Institute (GTI) and its partners (see below) are attempting to improve both electrochemical performance and the transfer of stack-generated heat in order to develop an effective module for 10-kW, planar, SOFC systems. The module combines radiantly heated gas panels with an improved anode-supported, planar SOFC stack technology under development at Materials and Systems Research Inc. (MSRI) and the University of Utah (U-Utah). Technologix Corporation and Nexant, Inc. are assisting GTI in system design.

As a basis for the 10-kW system, the project is designing, constructing and testing three, sub-scale, 1-3 kW breadboard units - operating on blended gases to simulate hydrogen, natural gas, and reformate fuels. The first sub-scale module has been designed and fabricated. The presentation will discuss the concepts underlying the design of this module as well as the initial test results.