Study of variables for accelerating lifetime testing of SOFCs

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) applications require lifetimes of several years on the system level. A big challenge is to proof/confirm/demonstrate such exceptionally long lifetimes.Accelerated or compressed testing are possible methods. Activities in this area have been carried out without arriving at a generally accepted result.

First accelerated testing approaches were performed under non-steady operation conditions (current cycling,temperature cycling) by different researchers [1, 2]. However, cycling conditions seemed to have no significant impact on degradation mechanisms. Furthermore, tests done at different current load cycling profiles revealed a strong deviation between predicted and measured lifetime [3].In this study, we present a detailed analysis of durability results for degradation mechanisms of single SOFC components as function of operating conditions.

Electrochemical impedance data is collected and used to de-convolute the individual losses of singe SOFC cell components – electrolyte, cathode and anode. The obtained knowledge is adopted to identify operation profiles and appropriate stresses in order to execute appropriate accelerated testing for lifetime investigation of SOFCs.