IDEAL-Cell: first experimental proves of an innovative concept

IDEAL-Cell is a new concept of a high temperature fuel cell that will operate in the range 600-700 °C. It aims at isolating in 3 independent chambers the fuel, the oxidizer and the water to avoid all the severe pitfalls connected with the presence of water at the electrodes in both SOFC and PCFC standard concepts. Therefore, it is based on the junction between the anode part of a PCFC and the cathode part of a SOFC through a mixed H+ and O2- conducting porous ceramic membrane. Spark Plasma Sintering samples were designed specifically for proving the IDEAL-Cell concept. The first electrochemical results obtained at 600 °C under hydrogen on millimetre thick samples show that IDEAL-Cell behaves as expected like a high temperature fuel cell. It is estimated that the overall efficiency of this new concept should greatly surpass that of standard SOFCs and PCFCs and that the material constraints, especially in the case of interconnect materials, should significantly decrease.