The first (DE-FOA-0001229), is to support research projects that will improve the reliability, robustness and endurance of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC), stack, and system technology that is nearing commercial viability.

This is intended to advance commercially viable SOFC technology for entry into service products, which will eventually lead to SOFC technology that is viable for large scale central generation applications. Estimated total program funding is $9.5 million.

Technical areas of interest include:

• Innovative Concepts: This topic area will support the research and development of SOFC technology that has the potential to significantly undercut current DOE cost targets in a SOFC system. Proposals are sought for applied bench-scale R&D on innovative SOFC cell and stack technologies that will significantly decrease the cost of SOFC systems by leveraging advancements that have occurred in the DOE SOFC Program and /or advanced cell manufacturing techniques. Projects selected under this topic area will culminate in a nominally 5-10 kW-scale stack test for at least 1000 hours using full-size cells, operating on natural gas or simulated natural gas fuel, that would be envisioned in a commercial system.

  Potential technology development pathways could include, but are not limited to, one or more of the following: lower-cost materials; advanced manufacturing methods; high-performance cell components; and alternative architectures.

• SOFC Core Technology: This research topic area will focus on applied laboratory or bench-scale R&D that improves the robustness, reliability, and endurance of SOFC cell or stack technology. Applications in this topic area can focus on any SOFC cell or stack component. These projects will have two phases. Phase I will be 18 months in duration, during which time innovative SOFC cell or stack concepts will be developed based on preliminary experimental and/or modeling results. Successful Recipients will transition from Phase I into Phase II via a competitive down-select process.

  In Phase II, successful recipients will build on the promising concepts developed in Phase I over the course of three years. Phase II budgets will be approximately five times the value of Phase I to reflect the higher TRL of the Phase II experimental and/or modeling work. Additionally, it is envisioned that successful Phase II Recipients will partner with an SOFC manufacturer whose technology is nearing commercial viability. Phase II projects selected under this topic area will culminate in testing of full-size cells by the participating SOFC manufacturer.

The second (DE-FOA-0001244), is to support projects the goal of which is to test a nominal 400kWe thermally self-sustaining atmospheric or pressurized SOFC prototype system with an average stack operating temperature greater than 700 ˚C. Estimated program funding is $12 million.

The SOFC cell repeat unit size (active area) and stack size (number of repeat units) for the stack test article must be technically- and economically-viable for aggregation into a ≥250kW fuel cell module, which in turn would serve as the building block for ≥100MWe IGFC and/or NGFC systems.

The stack test article system may be a brass-board or integrated system, and may be comprised of one or more SOFC stacks. The stack(s) must be operated under thermally self-sustaining conditions. The system must support stack operating conditions anticipated for routine, steady-state operations in a future commercial stationary power generation system deployment scenario. NOC (current density [J], average stack temperature [T_avg], pressure [P], fuel utilization [U_f], etc.) will be explicitly defined in advance of the test. Cathode air humidity should be at reasonable levels consistent with that expected in commercial deployment.

Background. The purpose of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy (FE) Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) program is to develop low-cost, high-performance, reliable and robust fuel cell technology suitable for coal-fueled central station power generation applications with CCS at a COE competitive with current technology without CCS.

SOFC power systems have the potential to achieve greater than 60% efficiency higher heating value (HHV) and more than 97% carbon capture at a cost-of-electricity that is projected to be approximately 40% below that presently available through integrated gasification fuel cell (IGFC) systems with carbon capture. DOE’s SOFC Program is developing SOFC technology suitable for natural gas fueled distributed generation (DG) applications and natural gas fuel cell (NGFC) or IGFC central stations.

An attractive pathway to deployment of either IGFC or NGFC systems is through near-term market opportunities in natural gas fueled distributed generation. The Program is prepared to leverage this opportunity by field testing of a natural gas fueled SOFC Power System at a host site in year 2016.

Recently, teams have made advancements in terms of the reliability, robustness and endurance of low-cost SOFC technology. Systems studies conducted by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) and others show that such improvements (involving, for example, power degradation, availability, and stack life) of current SOFC technology—resulting in lower capital and operating and maintenance (O&M) costs—are critical to the commercial viability and deployment prospects of the technology.

Ultimate SOFC program goals are to develop fuel cells equal to or less than (≤) 0.2% per 1000 hours power degradation over a 5-plus year stack life; high-volume (e.g., ≥250MW/year) stack production costs of $225 per kilowatt ($225/kW_system net AC); and “power block” (exclusive of fuel supply, contaminant removal, and CO₂ capture subsystems) capital cost of $900/kWsystem net AC (in year-2011 dollars).

Because of the successful progression of the present status of laboratory-scale tests, going forward, DOE is emphasizing prototype system testing of the SOFC technology at component scales suitable for MW-class deployment, while maintaining low cost. DOE said this effort will take the SOFC program one step closer to the goal of successfully advancing SOFC technology from its present state to the point of commercial readiness sometime between the years of 2020 and 2030.