SOFC system development and held trials for commercial applications

At Fraunhofer IKTS, appropriate processes and methods for the development of customized, application-specific SOFC concepts and prototype systems have been established during various projects in the past, funded by public bodies and industrial customers. As an outcome of the cell and stack developments during the past years, two proprietary SOFC technology platforms for system integration are readily available at IKTS. The eneramic® technology can be utilized for SOFC devices in the power range between 50 and 300 W. CFY stacks are available in standard sizes between 10 and 40 cells with a power output between 300 W and 1.2 kW. Higher power levels can be achieved by integration of multiple stacks in joint HotBox modules. For the development of SOFC systems, a detailed plant specification and process design is prepared initially. Here, all application-specific requirements are considered and a system concept with special consideration of the proposed operating modes and fuel processing technology is derived. The proposed concept is validated afterwards by means of laboratory tests on component, HotBox and system level. Further design iterations and model-based analyses are used for the creation of optimized solutions to be implemented in prototype and demonstration systems. Two exemplary SOFC development projects are described in order to illustrate the development status and system engineering approach