Triode solid oxide fuel cells: A new approach to enhanced anodic and cathodic electrocatalysis

Abstract

The introduction of a third electrode is described for enhancing the performance of fuel cells. The new device and method introduces a new controllable variable in fuel cell and battery operation and has been found to cause up to 700% enhancement in SOFC fuel cell power output but also enhancement in overall thermodynamic efficiency. This significant enhancement of SOFC performance results from the minimization of anodic and cathodic overpotential. Thus the triode fuel cell operation is quite advantageous under high Wagner number conditions. A mathematical model has been developed describing the observed enhanced performance and identifying the critical parameters for successful operation of triode SOFCs with paste and state of the art SOFC electrodes. The model is compared with experimental results of triode SOFC operation.