Recent Development of Micro Ceramic Reactors for Advanced Ceramic Reactor System

Ceramic reactors, which convert materials and energy electrochemically, are expected to solve various environmental problems, and use of micro reactor design was shown to realize high performance reactor with high thermal durability operable at lower temperatures. Our research project “Advanced Ceramic Reactor” supported by NEDO targets to develop new fabrication technology for such micro reactors and modules using conventional, commercially available materials. In this study, fabrication technology of micro tubular ceramic reactors have been investigated for aiming solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) application, such as small distributed power generators, APU for vehicles, and portable power sources. So far, micro tubular SOFCs under 1 mm diam. using doped ceria electrolyte and Ni-ceria based cermet for tubular support has been successfully developed and evaluated. The single micro tubular SOFC showed cell performance of 0.46 W/cm² (@0.7 V) at 550 °C with H₂ fuel. Bundle design for such tubular cell was also proposed and fabricated. Discussion will cover fabrication technology of single tubular SOFC and bundle, and optimization of the cell and bundle design by considering gas pressure loss and current collecting loss.