Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology has received widening interest in the past ten years. The attractive feature of this technology is its clean and efficient generation of electricity from a broad spectrum of practical fuels ranging from natural gas, biofuels to diesel and coal gas. Potential applications for the SOFC cover portable, mobile, and stationary markets. Significant technical progress has been made in SOFC technology in recent years; however, a number of issues, especially material-related issues, need to be resolved before the technology becomes practical. In this respect, research and development in the material science and engineering of the technology plays a key role. This lecture discusses the development of materials for the SOFC and focuses on how selected materials are tailored and engineered to meet requirements for practical applications.
Dr. Nguyen Minh is an internationally well known expert on solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology and has been involved in the development of fuel cells and related energy technologies in the last twenty years. His research and development experience covers a number of areas ranging from fundamentals (electrochemistry/electrochemical engineering, reaction mechanisms), materials (high-temperature materials, molten salts, ceramics) to processes and manufacturing (hydrogen production, ceramic fabrication), system operation (system design, prototype demonstration).
Until May 2007, he was Chief Scientist, General Electric (GE) Global Research, Torrance, CA. As the Chief Scientist, Dr. Minh was responsible for the organization’s overall technical objectives on fuel cells, oversaw the broad technical roadmap and R&D direction, and served as the Principal Investigator of GE multi-million fuel cell programs and the primary technical representative to customers and industry. From 2001-2004, he was Manager, Fuel Cells and led the fuel cell group at GE to develop SOFCs for commercialization. He was responsible for group performance and provided technical direction, coordinated group activities, and assisted in business strategic planning.
Before GE acquisition of Honeywell’s Fuel Cell group in 2001, Dr. Minh was Senior Manager, Fuel Cells at Honeywell and AlliedSignal (before AlliedSignal merged with Honeywell) leading the SOFC, proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, hydrogen and oxygen production technology R&D efforts aiming at commercial, military, and space applications. Before joining AlliedSignal in 1986, he was Associate Manager, Fuel Cell Program Office and Group Leader at Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago, Illinois (1980-1985) working on molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs), batteries, and advanced electrolytic processes. Dr. Minh received his Ph.D. and B.Sc. in Chemical Engineering.
Dr. Minh has lectured extensively on fuel cell technologies and has been invited to give plenary lectures, seminars and presentations at numerous international and national meetings/conferences/workshops. He has served on review panels for US Department of Energy, Department of Defense, National Science Foundation and several state agencies and as a consultant to United Nations. He has also been a reviewer of energy related reports and documents prepared for US National Research Council, Academy of Engineering, and Academy of Science.
His accomplishments on SOFCs include many firsts in this area. He was the first to propose the anode-support cell configuration, now the standard for planar SOFCs, first to demonstrate the use of a conventional ceramic processing method (tape calendering or rolling) to fabricate thin electrolytes, first to build hundred-watt-class stacks with metallic interconnects, and published the first monograph on the technology. Dr. Minh is the author/coauthor of the book “Science and Technology of Ceramic Fuel Cells” as well as 4 book chapters, 20 patents, and over 100 published technical articles on fuel cells and related technologies. His feature article “Ceramic Fuel Cells” published in Journal of the American Ceramic Society (J. Am. Ceram. Soc., 76, 1993, 563-588) is among the most cited papers in the electrochemical technology literature (about 1500 citations to date). Dr. Minh has received several awards, most recently the 2007 Francis T. Bacon Medal, for his research on SOFCs.
