Abstract: An overview of the Solid State Energy Conversion Alliance (SECA) program in USA and also an introduction of the Solid Oxide fuel cell (SOFC) used for clean electricity generation will be given briefly. The focus is on the anode side of the SOFC (the fuel feeding port): syngas purity requirements, current gasification and clean up technologies, and mainly, effect of fuel contaminants to the cell performance as well as the mechanistic study. Establishing the tolerance limits of SOFCs for contaminants in the coal-derived gas will allow proper design of the fuel feed system that will not catastrophically damage the SOFCs or allow long-term cumulative degradation. Several contaminants (As, P, S, and Cl containing species) are chosen to illustrate the effect of these contaminants to the cell performance and their degradation mechanisms: surface effect vs. bulk effect. If time allows, both the individual effects and synergetic effects would be discussed.
Resume
Jianer Bao
Specialized Professional Competence
Fuel cell electrocatalysis, poisoning mechanism analysis for the solid oxide fuel cells, low cost solar grade silicon mass production, kinetics and mechanism analysis, thermochemical properties analysis, electrochemical techniques, anodic oxide film growth and dissolution, modeling and optimization, electronic ceramics, equipment development for proton ion source, six sigma quality control.
Education
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Ph.D. |
2003-2007, Pennsylvania State University (PSU), USA, Fuel cell electrochemistry in MatSE |
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B.S. & M.S. |
1996-2002, Tsinghua University, Electronic/functional ceramics (Hexaferrites) in MatSE |
Work Experience
l 11/2008- : Materials scientist at SRI (Stanford Research Institute) International, Menlo Park, CA
1. Technology transfer of a SRI fluorosilicate process for low cost solar grade silicon mass production to industrial licensees. The impurity levels are below sub-ppm, readily available for solar applications, yet the cost is only about 1/4 of the current market price.
2. Preliminary investigation of Si as a fuel in the form of metal-air battery for various applications since theoretically, Si has better potential in efficiency and controllability, and much lower cost than other reactive metals such as Al and Zn.
l 10/2007-11/2008: Postdoctoral Fellow at SRI International
1. Test the poisoning effect of trace contaminants to the anode of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), investigate the mechanisms for poisoning, and provide solutions or give the tolerance limit for various contaminants.
2. Design and test of an efficient, compact, and light proton ion source using electron impact ionization for charge compensation applications such as NASA satellites.
3. Internal development of another charge compensation proton ion source employing advanced deposition technologies to make nanometer size multi-tips and use the high field at the tips to produce large quantities of proton ions for various applications.
4. Thermochemical analysis of the nature of the trace impurities in silicon such as their chemical states and activity coefficients, etc., and propose solutions for the further removal of impurities.
l 08/2002-05/2003: Ceramic engineer at General Electric, Shanghai, China
1. Establish a low cost production line for the manufacture of high pressure sodium lamps (HPSL).
2. Technology engineering and optimization for the HPSL production process.
3. Sourcing and development of a low cost, reliable screen printing equipment and technology to print the metallic starting aid on lamps.
Research Highlights
l 2003-2007: Fundamental aspects of the electrocatalysis of hydrogen and oxygen electrode reactions on platinum (funded by DOE).
o Constructed a special set of apparatus which can maintain the system in a single aqueous phase at high pressure and high temperatures up to 300oC.
o Obtained the activation energy for the hydrogen electrode reaction within a wide temperature range, and extracted the intrinsic parameters for the reaction.
o Demonstrated that the sluggish nature of the oxygen reduction reaction is attributed to the existence of a very thin oxide layer on Pt in most of the interested potential range.
o Developed a new method based on quantum mechanical tunneling (QMT) theory to detect the thickness of extremely thin (angstroms) oxide films on metal electrodes.
l 2000--2002: Investigated the magnetic, dielectric properties and relaxation mechanism of Co2Z hexaferrites, which are used as high frequency multi-layer chip inductors (MLCI) in integrated circuits.
l 1999--2000: Implemented low-temperature sintering (<950oC) of Co2Z hexaferrite with high performance used as high frequency MLCI.
l 1998--2000: Studied the effect of silver nano-particle doping on the mechanics of PZT.
Awards and Services
· Travel grant from Physical Electrochemistry division for 207th ECS meeting in 2005.
· Teaching assistant to give lectures and grade homework to a graduate class “Interfacial Electrochemical Processes”.
· Paper reviewer of the College of Engineering Research Symposium (CERS) organized by the Engineering Graduate Student Council (EGSC) in PSU in 2006.
· Invited paper reviewer for the Journal of Research Society.
· Invited paper reviewer for the proceedings of the NACE 17th International corrosion congress, Oct. 2008, Las Vegas, session: corrosion control in the service of society.
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