Portable Generator Based on Direct-Flame Metal-Supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (MS-SOFCs)
Authors: Tucker Michael C 
Published: February 2020

Metal-Supported solid oxide fuel cells (MS-SOFCs) tolerate rapid thermal cycling [1,2]. This makes them ideally suited for applications requiring rapid start-up time, or tolerance to thermal fluctuations arising from load-following or intermittent fuel flow. In direct flame mode, SOFCs are heated by a flame impinging on the anode side of the cell, and the flame also partially oxidizes the fuel to electrochemically- active species (such as hydrogen and carbon monoxide) [3–6].

In this work, we have developed a prototype consumer product by retrofitting MS-SOFCs to a commercial propane-fueled camping stove (Figure 1). The power produced by the fuel cells is conditioned by a simple microelectronic circuit to provide LED lighting and USB mobile phone charging.

Previous efforts [7] to systematically characterize the behavior of MS-SOFCs in direct-flame mode in carefully controlled lab environment will be summarized, including the impact of: air-to-fuel ratio in the flame, fuel flow velocity, burner-to-MS-SOFC distance, catalyst composition, and application of thermal insulation to the cell. The insight from these experiments was used in the present work to guide the design of a free-standing prototype, including cell size and stacking arrangement, and interaction with the stove flame and microelectronics. The prototype performance is shown in Figure 2. The MS-SOFC stack can be heated up from room temperature to delivery of useful power in less than 10 seconds. Operation points in LED mode and USB-charger mode fall on the overall operating curve of the MS-SOFC stack, and successful charging of smartphones is demonstrated.

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Figure 1