Power Electronics for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
Sponsor DOE Office of Fossil Energy

DOE National Energy Technology Laboratory
Sponsor Contact D. Wayne Collins
Organization Oak Ridge National Laboratory
Contact Donald J. Adams

In this activity, Oak Ridge National Laboratory Power Electronics and Electric Machinery Research Center is assessing the specific power electronic needs for solid oxide fuel cells and evaluating the manner in which existing and expected near-term power electronics technologies meet those needs.
This work is addressing technical barriers for solid oxide fuel cell power electronic systems, so that issues of cost, reliability, and performance can be resolved on a time scale to allow field testing to begin in 2006.

Collaborations with the National Energy Technology Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance, and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineering are important parts of this project.

2.5-kW ZeTek Power alkaline fuel cell in the Power Electronics and Electrical Machinery Center's laboratory at the National Transportation Research Center.
Shown below:

Possible ganging configurations of solid oxide fuel cell modules (3-10 kW) for higher power applications.

A trade study is being performed by PEEMRC as a part of the SECA program is considering these ganging configurations.

200-kW United Technologies Corporation phosphoric acid fuel cell that will be partially powering NTRC, beginning in April 2003.

The fuel cell modules are connected in series, feeding a single/three-phase dc/ac power converter to deliver power to different loads.

Each fuel cell module is connected to a single-phase dc/ac power converter module. These converter modules are then connected in series to form a single-phase system. Three of these single-phase systems can be connected to feed three-phase loads.