• Energy Research
• 2021-2025close
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Abstract This study proposes a novel interconnector, termed beam and slot interconnector (BSI), for the anode-supported planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). A detailed comparative investigation is conducted on various transport characteristics and electrical performance of the SOFC stacks with conventional straight channel interconnectors (SCIs) or with novel interconnectors. Results show that the peak power density of a SOFC stack with BSIs is 24.8% higher than it with SCIs at 700 °C and a fuel–air flow rate of 16–40 Nml/(min·cm2). Moreover, BSI can reduce the fuel–air feeding and enhance the fuel–air utilization while maintaining high output power density. Compared with SCI, BSI promotes the gas disturbance, significantly increases the gas velocity and vorticity, and leads the gas to flow in the direction perpendicular to the channel. BSI eliminates the limitation of SCIs on gas diffusion in the electrode and transfers sufficient reactant gas into the electrode function layers for electrochemical reactions. BSI shortens the charge transfer path in SOFC and almost avoids the adverse effects of the electrode-interconnector contact resistance. Compared with the conventional SOFC stack, the novel SOFC stack with BSIs significantly reduces various overpotentials. At 700 °C and 0.5 A/cm2, the activation, concentration, and contact overpotentials are reduced by 8.5%, 47.4%, and 96.4% respectively, and the total overpotential finally drops by 20.0%. Overall, the electrical performance of the SOFC stack with novel interconnectors significantly exceeds the one with conventional interconnectors under the same operating conditions.

Abstract The technology landscape around distributed generation continues to evolve in response to increasing demand for high-efficiency, low-emission, low-cost power generation. While emerging distributed power technologies, such as solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), continue to advance, they still face challenges due to their high capital costs, and shorter lifetimes that typically arise from electrochemical stack performance degradation at high operating temperatures (>750 °C). Recent advancements in protonic ceramic fuel cells (PCFCs) offer the potential to mitigate drawbacks of their higher temperature SOFC counterparts by enabling lower operating temperatures (550 °C–600 °C) with acceptable power densities. The present work leverages the recent progress in protonic ceramic cell and stack technology development to generate viable system configurations and evaluate the energetic performance potential of PCFC-based systems for stationary power generation. Process system engineering of two water-neutral system concepts, which provide 25 kW of electric power and process hot water, are presented and evaluated through sensitivity studies. Stack design parameters are altered and used to gauge the effect on system performance characteristics, including fuel cell stack and balance-of-plant sizing requirements, and electric and cogeneration efficiencies. The study finds that the potentially high per-pass fuel utilization capability of PCFC stacks could enable unprecedented electric efficiencies approaching 70% without hybridization with other prime movers.

Abstract This paper presents an ultra-low frequency vibration energy harvester using a zigzag piezoelectric spring oscillator, which consists of two piezoelectric zigzag springs and a rolling metal ball. The metal ball rolls and drives the piezoelectric springs to deform to harvest energy when a slight vibration occurs in the external environment. The natural frequency of zigzag spring oscillator piezoelectric energy harvester (ZSO-PEH) is related to the length of the spring and the weight of the ball, correlation analysis is carried out by theoretical derivation and ANSYS simulation. It is found experimentally that the proposed device offers efficient energy output in ultra-low frequency excitation. A maximum output power of 5.68 mW is achieved under the best matching resistance of 5.1 k Ω at the excitation frequency of 3 Hz. The performance of energy harvester can be optimized by adjusting the length of the spring and the mass of the ball. The results show that the proposed piezoelectric energy harvester has the potential to power low-power electronic devices and wireless sensor nodes.

Thermally integrated pumped-thermal electricity storage (TI-PTES) offers the opportunity to store electricity as thermal exergy at a large scale, and existing studies are primarily focused on TI-PTES systems based on high-temperature thermal energy storage. This paper presents a thermo-economic analysis of a “cold TI-PTES” system which converts electricity into cold energy using a vapor compression refrigeration (VCR) unit and stores it at sub-ambient temperatures during the charging process, and generates electricity by using an organic Rankine cycle (ORC) working between the sub-ambient temperature and an external low-grade heat source during the discharging process. The effects of key parameters, i.e., mass flowrate and temperature of the storage medium, ORC evaporation temperature, component efficiencies, and pinch-point temperature differences, on the system performance are evaluated based on a whole-system thermo-economic model. The results reveal that the roundtrip efficiency and levelized cost of storage (LCOS) of the system increases while the electrical energy storage capacity decreases as the temperatures of the two cold storage tanks approach each other. When the temperature of the cold storage tank 1 rises from 1 °C to 8 °C while the cold storage tank 2 remains as 13 °C, there is an increase of 25% and 20% in the roundtrip efficiency and LCOS respectively while the energy storage capacity decreases by 69%. A roundtrip efficiency of 0.74 and LCOS of 0.32 $/kWh are achieved with a heat source temperature of 85 °C, using a mass flowrate and temperature of the cold storage medium of 50 kg/s and 1 °C. Furthermore, any change in cold storage medium mass flowrate changes both electrical energy storage capacity and power output by the same proportions. With a continuous high-flowrate external heat source, the LCOS can be as low as 0.17 $/kWh. By providing sufficient heat from an external heat source, the proposed system possesses a high potential for medium-to-large scale energy storage with a unique hybrid ...