Advances in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells X

By Narottam P. Bansal

This issue contains 13 papers from The American Ceramic Society’s 38th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites, held in Daytona Beach, Florida, January 26-31, 2014 presented in Symposium 3 - 12th International Symposium on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells: Materials, Science, and Technology.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Dec 23, 2014
• ISBN: 9781119040644

Book preview

Preface

The eleventh international symposium on Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC): Materials, Science, and Technology was held during the 38th International Conference and Exposition on Advanced Ceramics and Composites in Daytona Beach, FL, January 26-31, 2014. This symposium provided an international forum for scientists, engineers, and technologists to discuss and exchange state-of-the-art ideas, information, and technology on various aspects of solid oxide fuel cells.

These proceedings contain contributions on various aspects of solid oxide fuel cells that were discussed at the symposium. Thirteen papers describing the current status of solid oxide fuel cells materials, science, and technology are included in this volume. Each manuscript was peer-reviewed using The American Ceramic Society review process.

The editors wish to extend their gratitude and appreciation to all the authors for their contributions and cooperation, to all the participants and session chairs for their time and efforts, and to all the reviewers for their useful comments and suggestions. Financial support from The American Ceramic Society is gratefully acknowledged. Thanks are due to the staff of the meetings and publications departments of The American Ceramic Society for their invaluable assistance. Advice, help and cooperation of the members of the symposium's international organizing committee (J.S. Chung, Tatsumi Ishihara, Nguyen Minh, Mogens Mogensen, J. Obrien, Prabhakar Singh, Jeffry Stevenson, Toshio Suzuki, and Eric Wachsman) at various stages were instrumental in making this symposium a great success.

We hope that this volume will serve as a valuable reference for the engineers, scientists, researchers, and others interested in the materials, science, and technology of solid oxide fuel cells.

MIHAILS KUSNEZOFF

Fraunhofer IKTS

NAROTTAM P. BANSAL

NASA Glenn Research Center

Introduction

This issue of the Ceramic Engineering and Science Proceedings (CESP) is one of seven issues published from manuscripts submitted and approved for the proceedings of the 38th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (ICACC), held January 26-31, 2014 in Daytona Beach, Florida. ICACC is the most prominent international meeting in the area of advanced structural, functional, and nanoscopic ceramics, composites, and other emerging ceramic materials and technologies. This prestigious conference has been organized by The American Ceramic Society's (ACerS) Engineering Ceramics Division (ECD) since 1977.

The 38th ICACC hosted more than 1,000 attendees from 40 countries and approximately 800 presentations. The topics ranged from ceramic nanomaterials to structural reliability of ceramic components which demonstrated the linkage between materials science developments at the atomic level and macro level structural applications. Papers addressed material, model, and component development and investigated the interrelations between the processing, properties, and microstructure of ceramic materials.

The conference was organized into the following 19 symposia and sessions.

The proceedings papers from this conference are published in the below seven issues of the 2014 CESP; Volume 35, Issues 2-8, as listed below.

Mechanical Properties and Performance of Engineering Ceramics and Composites IX, CESP Volume 35, Issue 2 (includes papers from Symposium 1)

Advances in Solid Oxide Fuel Cells X, CESP Volume 35, Issue 3 (includes papers from Symposium 3)

Advances in Ceramic Armor X, CESP Volume 35, Issue 4 (Issue 4 (includes papers from Symposium 4)

Advances in Bioceramics and Porous Ceramics VII, CESP Volume 35, Issue 5 (includes papers from Symposia 5 and 9)

Advanced Processing and Manufacturing Technologies for Nanostructured and Multifunctional Materials, CESP Volume 35, Issue 6 (includes papers from Symposia 7 and 8)

Ceramic Materials for Energy Applications IV, CESP Volume 35, Issue 7 (includes papers from Symposia 6 and 13)

Developments in Strategic Materials and Computational Design V, CESP Volume 35, Issue 8 (includes papers from Symposia 2, 10, 11, and 12 and from Focused Sessions 1, 2, 3, and 4); the 3rd Global Pacific Rim Engineering Ceramics Summit; and the 3rd Annual Global Young Investigator Forum

The organization of the Daytona Beach meeting and the publication of these proceedings were possible thanks to the professional staff of ACerS and the tireless dedication of many ECD members. We would especially like to express our sincere thanks to the symposia organizers, session chairs, presenters and conference attendees, for their efforts and enthusiastic participation in the vibrant and cutting-edge conference.

ACerS and the ECD invite you to attend the 39th International Conference on Advanced Ceramics and Composites (http://www.ceramics.org/daytona2015) January 25-30, 2015 in Daytona Beach, Florida.

To purchase additional CESP issues as well as other ceramic publications, visit the ACerS-Wiley Publications home page at www.wiley.com/go/ceramics.

ANDREW GYEKENYESI

Ohio Aerospace Institute, NASA Glenn Research Center, USA

MICHAEL HALBIG

NASA Glenn Research Center, USA

Volume Editors

July 2014

SOFC AS THE CENTRAL CONTROL AND ESSENTIAL SUPPLY OF A PLANT FACTORY AKA VERTICAL FARMING

Ling-yuan Tseng, Shun-yu Wang, Vincent Chang, Ming-fu Chu, Terry T.T. Chen

Electric Energy Express, Hsinchu, Taiwan

ABSTRACT

An SOFC unit in operation will generate electricity and heat, plus carbon dioxide and water. Those come out from the SOFC are the essentials for plants to grow through the photosynthesis reactions. The electricity will light up LED with adjustable output spectrum; while the heat will provide a growing environment for plants especially in the long winter regions. Higher CO2 concentration and moisture will facilitate the processes of photosynthesis. The un-wanted CO2 and extra heat in some regions will become the necessary growing elements for plants, plus the use of controllable light sources, the harvest can be double-folded. The most attractive is the operational cost saved for running a plant factory.

INTRODUCTION

There are two major motivations of why the plant factory becomes so popular nowadays i.e., (1) the food safety and (2) the constant supply of produces. When the plants grow in the open field, more or less the pesticides and/or fertilizer are used to keep away the damages caused by insects and increase the harvest. In our planet, high latitude countries are usually short of supply of produces during cold or snow seasons. Or, certain plants only grow in certain seasons with different climate conditions. The seasonal constrains limit the supply of produces required from the market. As the result, vegetables, fruits and flowers are transported from different places by long haul trucks, rail road, ship containers or even air planes. Besides the cost increases, the carbon dioxide emission involved from those transportation means it will just worsen the global warming situation. The carbon footprint of food we consume daily shall be the lower the better, and that is the urge of buy local.

GREEN HOUSE AND PLANT FACTORY

It is a confined structure and plants are placed in organized positions, irrigation and lighting arrangements are installed, air-conditioning system (heater or/and chiller) might also be installed. Regarding the greenhouse roof design, it could allow near 100% natural sun light to come through by using transparent material roof or retractable design and open only when sun light presents. However, more and more facilities are designed like a factory and using 100% artificial light sources, ventilations, controlled irrigations, carbon dioxide generators, heaters and some other utilities set-ups. They are all under one roof, and that's why Plant Factory is called.

PHOTOSYNTHESIS

Photosynthesis is a process used by plants to convert light energy into chemical energy. Plants usually convert 2%–4% of the available energy in radiation into plant growth.¹ Photosynthetic organisms are photoautotroph and it means from carbon dioxide and water and using the energy from the light, the carbohydrates will be synthesized to fuel the organisms' activities. The actual conversion efficiency can vary from 0.1% to 8%.² Organic compounds produced by photosynthesis provide the energy and building material for ecosystems. In general, the overall equation of photosynthesis occurs in plants can be represented as,

numbered Display Equation

The key elements to perform plants' photosynthesis are,

Light

Carbon dioxide