Wachsman and his research colleagues have also published details in Science on a potential path toward SOFCs that operate at temperatures as low as 350 degrees C with a new design that features high-conductivity electrolytes and a specially nanostructured electrode.

SOFC technology capable of lower "intermediate" temperatures ranging from 600 to 800 degrees C is the goal of a recent half-million-dollar National Science Foundation project at Argonne National Laboratory and the University of Illinois at Chicago. Christos G. Takoudis's interdisciplinary team plans to wield a unique atomic layer deposition/chemical vapor deposition (ALD/CVD) hybrid reactor that can lay down novel thin-film cell materials and structures that run cooler by design.

But before that research group makes its final project report three years from now, second-generation improved ceramic SOFCs should have begun to augment the Bloom Box's initial success in occupying and developing a small but key niche of the energy market.

5 Comments

1. 1. alan6302 12:17 PM 11/18/11

   The internal combustion engine might be killed fast . Perhaps in 14 months. This technology or the Rossi cold fusion might save us.The Rossi reactor qualifies as the " crystal power" predicted 100 years ago.

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2. 2. bigbopper in reply to alan6302 01:26 PM 11/18/11

   You are dreaming. Cold fusion is nonsense, and the internal combustion engine will be with us for a long time to come.

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3. 3. Jeff X Williams 11:24 PM 11/20/11

   Fuel Cell Technology solves many problems at once... we should be rapidly deploying them for stationary distributed energy needs... just look at the outages happening every time a storm blows through the eastern seaboard... problem is that senate/congress probably do not possess the intelligence to comprehend such technology! Seriously... and they have very few moving parts to understand... Awesome USA developed technology once again not being used in the USA???
   
   http://fchea.posterous.com/posco-power-completes-100-mw-fuel-cell-power
   
   http://enbridge.rawintegrated.com/hybrid/hybrid_complete.html
   
   http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=8310315

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4. 4. Jeff X Williams 11:32 PM 11/20/11

   Please copy / paste... the links below and watch... incredible that we are not pursuing this with everything we have???
   
   http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/story?section=news/local/orange_county&id=8310315
   
   http://enbridge.rawintegrated.com/hybrid/hybrid_complete.html
   
   http://fchea.posterous.com/posco-power-completes-100-mw-fuel-cell-power
   
   Watch how fast a barrel of oil drops when we adopt this technology?
   
   

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5. 5. eco-steve 12:14 PM 11/21/11

   Hydrogen cells produce water. And solid oxide cells?

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