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Solid Oxide Fuel Cells Center of Economic Excellence
Inception: About the CoEE: The Solid Oxide Fuel Cells CoEE is part of the larger USC Future Fuels™ Initiative, which works to develop new fuel and energy choices, which are becoming increasingly important as the United States and other nations look to reduce their reliance on carbon-based fuel. Solid oxide fuel cells are one of the leading types of fuel cells available for commercialization. They can be used in large, high-power systems such as in full-scale industrial and large-scale electricity generating stations. The Solid Oxide Fuel Cells CoEE is working to remove barriers to the use of solid oxide fuel cells by designing components to accommodate variations in temperature and transport associated with practical uses, understanding long-term behavior and durability of solid oxide, developing testing protocols that simulate solid oxide fuel cells’ behavior over their lifetime, and developing systems for stationary power generation. The Endowed Chair for this CoEE, Dr. Kenneth Reifsnider, has co-founded a company called NextGenEn, Inc., which expects to market its first products by the end of 2009. Another company, NanoDynamics, is considering locating a manufacturing plant in South Carolina, in part because of the work of this CoEE.
Currently, this CoEE has funding totaling more than $4.2 million from NASA, the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and the Savannah River National Laboratory.
In FY 2009, faculty associated with this CoEE generated more than $24 million in proposed research funding. This CoEE also has developed a collaboration with the Savannah River National Laboratory, the NASA Glenn Research Center, and ENrG, Inc., to create a high temperature electrolysis system with NASA-invented fuel cell technology. The DOE Office of Basic Energy Sciences promised future funding if a working prototype system could be demonstrated in one year’s time. SCRA granted $400,000 for the creation of the prototype system, which is currently being constructed. USC has the nation’s only National Science Foundation Industry/University Cooperative Research Center for Fuel Cells (CFC). Through the CFC, USC is collaborating with the Korea Institute of Energy Research, the Fraunhofer Institute for Solar Energy in Germany, and 20 national industrial partners. Funding level: CoEE Endowed Chair:
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