Status of Light Weight Cassette Design of SOFC

Lightweight SOFC stacks are currently being developed for stationary applications such as residential CHP units, for automotive applications such as APU and for portable devices. Within the EU funded project the so-called Jülich CS-design has been improved for lightweight SOFC stacks using glass-ceramic sealings that decouple the thermal stresses within the stack and at the same time allows optimal sealing and contacting. The design is highly suitable for industrial low-cost manufacturing and automated assembly. To determine the effect on the thermomechanical behaviour of the fuel cell stack, modelling and coupled thermomechanical analysis have been performed. Based on the analysis results in combination with the manufacturing experience, test results, and post-test analysis from previous stack design, substantial changes have been made to the CS-design in order to improve mechanical robustness of the stack.

The manufacturing of single parts, particularly due to the improved design of sheet metal interconnects, as well as the assembling processes are suitable for low-cost mass manufacturing. The novel decal concept of glass-ceramic sealant screen printed on foil in order to produce green tapes is used for joining the stack layers offering an enormous potential for cost savings in industrial assembly process. The new design CS^V(D2.0 in the MMLCR=SOFC project) furthermore has extended the process window of the laser welding joining process.

First CS^V–design stack tests showed a comparable electrochemical performance to the previous CS^IV design. The good adhesion of the glass sealant applied on steel sheet by screen printed tape and good contacting behaviour between cells and interconnects were furthermore confirmed by post-test analysis.