Solving fuel cell degradation issues to achieve high efficiency combined heat and power

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are a next generation low carbon energy technology and one of the world's leading SOFC companies are the UK based Ceres Power Ltd. The aim of this project is to develop a novel experimental analysis technique to better understand what happens at the interfaces between oxide conducting ceramics. This is crucial to the development of a host of exciting technologies and is of particular interest to Ceres to improve their ability to predict cell lifetime.

The fundamental concept is to expose multi-layered samples to isotopically enriched oxygen gas and then use an ion imaging technique to observe how the isotopes moved through the sample. By fitting the results with a simple simulation, it should be possible to measure blocking effects caused by the interface between the layers for the first time! Ceres will be able to provide samples with a variety of operational histories, enabling us to build a picture of the relationship between usage and degradation. The student will also develop a working relationship with Ceres, including potential lab
placements and research presentations