Status & Progress in SOFCo’s Planar SOFC Development

Abstract
Significant advances are being made at SOFCo in all aspects of planar SOFC development, including stack endurance and system design and development. A fully integrated, thermally sustaining multi-kW system demonstration is underway. The system integrates in one thermal enclosure the planar SOFC stacks with an advanced heat exchanger, a steam generator, a sulfur remover, a fuel processor, and a start-up burner. The initial system will deliver a 2-kWe output operating on pipeline natural gas. Further development of larger systems will be based upon scale-up of this unit in the 10–50 kW range.