Advanced Materials for Energy Conversion and Storage 2023: Energy Conversion with SOC
Sponsored by: TMS Functional Materials Division, TMS: Energy Conversion and Storage Committee
Program Organizers: Jung Choi, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory; Amit Pandey, Lockheed Martin Space; Partha Mukherjee, Purdue University; Surojit Gupta, University of North Dakota; Soumendra Basu, Boston University; Paul Ohodnicki, University Of Pittsburgh; Eric Detsi, University of Pennsylvania
Monday 2:00 PM
March 20, 2023
Room: 32B
Location: SDCC
Session Chair: Uday Pal, Boston University; Prabhakar Singh, University of Connecticut
2:00 PM Keynote
Electrochemical Systems for Global Net-Zero and Zero Carbon Electricity Infrastructure: Prabhakar Singh1; Amit Pandey2; 1UConn, University of Connecticut; 2Lockheed Martin Space
This presentation will examine the global electricity generation trend with focus on enabling technologies and their potential to accelerate the transition to and adoption of net-zero and zero carbon emissions processes. Potential scenarios of utilizing carbon neutral fuels, carbon capture and utilization, hydrogen generation, as well as integration of industrial process thermal energy for the enhancement of energy efficiency will be outlined. Role of electrochemistry and electrochemical processes will be examined as an “enabler” for the above processes. Technology gaps and research needs for the implementation of cost effective and reliable electrochemical systems will be discussed.
2:30 PM
Bioinspired Hydrogen Electrolyzer: Laura Carmona-Saldarriaga1; Alex Ossa1; 1Universidad Eafit
Population growth has involved an increase in the use of natural resources from fossil fuels, promoting the development of strategies for the mitigation of their impacts, such as the use of clean energies. Hydrogen production from water electrolysis is widely considered one of the most promising options. Despite the recent advances in more efficient electrolyzers, there still remain important technological and commercial barriers to solve. Nature has solved similar difficulties using simple materials and designs. Here, we use mitochondria as a source of inspiration to develop nanostructures on silicon substrates able to improve the electrolysis process to produce Hydrogen using salty water as electrolyte. Series of electrochemical tests on prototype electrodes has shown good responses related to the Hydrogen production. Furthermore, a prototype electrolyzer was manufactured, showing promising hydrogen productions in comparison to other electrolyzers.
2:50 PM
In-situ Mitigation of Chromium Poisoning in SOFC Air Electrodes: Michelle Sugimoto1; Zhikuan Zhu2; Srikanth Gopalan2; Soumendra Basu2; Uday Pal2; 1Saint-Gobain; 2Boston University
Chromium poisoning of the air electrode remains an obstacle to the long-term performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). In this work, electrochemical cleaning as a new poisoning mitigation method, is investigated. In this approach, a mild anodic bias is applied to reverse the deposition reactions that form chromium-rich deposits. Experiments are performed on cells with LSM/YSZ composite air electrodes. It was found that electrochemical cleaning removes Cr2O3 deposits but not the Mn, Cr spinel (MnCr2O4) deposits. Strategies to overcome this challenge and the prospect of using in-situ electrochemical cleaning for MIEC (mixed ionic electronic conducting) air electrodes will also be presented.
3:10 PM Invited
Protective Coatings on Porous Interconnects for SOFC Applications: Soumendra Basu1; Zhikuan Zhu1; Srikanth Gopalan1; Uday Pal1; 1Boston University
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) exhibit performance degradation by ‘chromium poisoning’, where thermally grown Cr2O3 on stainless steel components form volatile Cr-containing species that are redeposited on active regions of the cathode. With porous substrates that have a large surface area to volume ratio, this effect can be more pronounced. Electrophoretic deposition (EPD) of spinel protective coatings on porous SUS430 metallic substrates using alternating current (AC) has been carried out. It is demonstrated that alternating current electrophoretic deposition (AC-EPD) was able to deposit protective coatings on all surfaces of porous substrates, that significantly limited the growth rate of the thermally grown oxide on the stainless steel substrates.
3:35 PM Break
3:50 PM
Correlating Microstructural Evolution in Reversible Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells to their Performance: Jillian Mulligan1; Ayesha Akter1; John-In Lee1; Uday Pal1; Srikanth Gopalan1; Soumendra Basu1; 1Boston University
Reversible Solid Oxide Electrochemical Cells (RSOEC) with nickelate-based oxygen electrodes and Ni/YSZ fuel electrodes have been subjected to long term operation in the electrolyzer (SOEC) mode, as well as periodic switching between solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and SOEC operational modes. Microstructural changes such as interfacial reactions, delamination, grain coarsening, Ni loss/migration, and changes in the percolated Ni phase, have been studied by SEM, TEM, XRD and FIB/SEM-based 3-D reconstruction. These microstructural changes will be correlated to changes in the electrochemical performance of these cells.
4:10 PM Invited
High Performance Reversible Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (RSOCs) Based on Ruddlesden-Popper Oxygen Electrodes for Grid Scale Energy Storage: Ayesha Akter1; Hector Grande1; Uday Pal1; Soumendra Basu1; Srikanth Gopalan1; 1Boston University
Incorporating more renewables into our energy economy is a critical challenge as we transition to a carbon free economy. Reversible solid oxide electrochemical cells (rSOCs) operated as fuel cell power systems and as electrolysis systems, can potentially allow integration of far greater amounts of solar and wind energy into our electricity grid. In this talk, we discuss recent research results on rSOCs based on phase-stabilized rare earth nickelate – rare-earth doped ceria composite oxygen electrodes. Such rSOCs exhibit excellent performance when cycled between solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrochemical cell (SOEC) modes. The degradation in such cells is significantly mitigated by mode-switching operation, compared to operating in single mode operation in electrolysis mode. By comparing distributed relaxation times (DRT) analysis of impedance spectra obtained from single-mode (electrolysis) operated cells, and cells operated reversibly by switching between SOFC and SOEC modes, we obtain insights into cell degradation mechanisms.
4:35 PM
Sulfur and Chromium Poisoning Mechanism of Lanthanum Nickelate Cathode Material: A Thermodynamic and Experimental Study: Rui Wang1; Lucas Parent2; Srikanth Gopalan3; Yu Zhong1; 1Worcester Polytechnic Institute; 2University of Connecticut; 3Boston University
Ruddlesden-Popper (RP) type La2NiO4 (LNO) phase, as an intermediate temperature solid oxide fuel cell (IT-SOFC), has been used as an alternative SOFC cathode material due to its high efficiency and low emissions. To further understand the long-term degradation mechanism of the LNO phase in SO2 and Cr vapor gas impurities, LNO was prepared, sintered, and heat-treated at 800, 900, and 1000 ℃ in the sulfur, chromium, and water vapor-containing atmospheres, respectively. Later, XRD, SEM and TEM techniques were applied to the samples and corresponding simulations were made by the CALPHAD approach based on the same experimental conditions to verify the formation of the detrimental secondary phases. Results showed good agreement among the predictions and experiments. More importantly, extensive simulations were also conducted under different conditions (temperature, the partial pressure of oxygen and impurities) to understand the long-term degradation mechanism and optimize the operating conditions.
4:55 PM
New Family of Interstitial Oxygen Ion Conductor Discovered by High-Throughput Computational Screening: Jun Meng1; MD Sariful Sheikh1; Ryan Jacobs1; Dane Morgan1; 1University of Wisconsin-Madison
Oxygen-ion conducting materials are important for many applications, particularly solid-oxide fuel cells. The development of alternative electrolyte/electrode materials with good oxygen ionic conductivity at low temperatures is of great interest. We did the high-throughput screening of 33,975 oxide materials (including synthesizability, structure features, thermochemical properties, ab initio calculations, and experiments) and discovered the new structure family of interstitial oxygen diffuser La4Mn5Si4O22 (LMSO). The calculated interstitial formation energy suggested that LMSO is oxygen hyperstoichiometric (La4Mn5Si4O22+0.5) in air, and the migration barrier is 0.45-0.69 eV. Oxygen diffusivity is calculated as 1×10-5 cm2/s and the ionic conductivity is 0.1 S/cm at 800 ℃, respectively. The existence of interstitial oxygen (La4Mn4.69Si4O22+0.42) is validated by the Electron Probe Micro-analyzer (EPMA) method, and the ionic conductivity is measured as 0.11 S/cm at 800℃ in air. This work demonstrates the integrated computational and experimental development of a new class of interstitial fast oxygen ion conductors.