The Ningbo Institute of Material Technology and Engineering (NIMTE), Chinese Academy of Sciences, has been pursuing the development of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) Stack for more than 3 years under the supports of the 863 Program of the Ministry of Science and Technology of China, Energy-base Direction Program of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Major Program of Zhejiang Province and Innovation Team Program of Ningbo City. Based on the assembling and testing of over 300 stacks, our group at the Division of Fuel Cell and Energy Technology (FCET), NIMTE, has investigated the effects of single cell, metallic interconnect and sealing material etc. on the stack performance systematically and achieved a breakthrough in SOFC stack module technology. We has also established a large-scale manufacturing process and route for stack module production and achieved the batch production of SOFC stack modules which are the intellectual properties solely owned by NIMTE.
Our group at FCET tested the performance of a 30-unit standard SOFC stack module as shown in the left picture below using a self-designed structure. The results (right figure below) show that the stack had an open circuit voltage (OCV) over 33 V and a power output of 530 W (H2, Air) at a voltage of 21 V when testing at 850ºC. In the case that the average voltage of the unit cell remained 0.7 V, the stack obtained a power density of 0.25 Wcm-2 and a fuel utilization rate of 65.3%, respectively. The volume power density and weight power density were 726 W/liter and 145 W/kg, respectively. Currently, our group at FCET has started the worldwide sale of self-developed stack modules.
