This Small Business Innovation Research Phase II project will continue the commercial development of the Liquid Tin Anode Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (LTA-SOFC) for direct conversion of biomass to electrical power. The LTA-SOFC is a transformational energy technology that dramatically increases the efficiency and simplicity of power generation from conventional fuels. In biopower, the LTA-SOFC provides a pathway to improve efficiency and capital cost and also enables smaller scale applications. Phase I successfully demonstrated the feasibility of direct biomass conversion to power, using biomass feed stocks which can have significant societal, environmental and economic impacts. Specifically in Phase I several different types of biomass including poplar and switchgrass were used to generate power in an actual LTA-SOFC cell. Post-test analysis indicated no ash fusion and near 100% fuel utilization (little residual carbon left). The Phase II effort will continue development of biopower applications for LTA-SOFC by demonstrating biomass fuel efficiency in a small stack assembly with continuous feeding. Also, evaluation of the fate of biomass-specific volatile components such as potassium will contribute to the understanding of LTA-SOFC longevity. Phase II will demonstrate additional LTA-SOFC biopower technical performance to reduce risk and increase the potential for commercialization of LTA-SOFC biopower.
The broader impact/commercial potential of this project will be increased use of renewable power. Currently biomass contributes only 1% of U.S. electric power despite available resources to provide over 20%. Increased use of biomass for electric power will reduce carbon emissions, increase energy security and create domestic jobs. Efficiencies lower than 20% and high capital cost of today?s technology make conventional biomass power about twice as expensive as coal limiting market penetration to about 1%. LTA-SOFC Direct Biomass generators will reduce the cost of power and lower capital cost while reducing emissions and feedstock consumption by 2-3 times. The EIA predicts that by 2030, biomass will generate 4.5% of U.S electricity, representing an available market for LTA-SOFC of about $30 billion. The LTA-SOFC commercialization strategy starts with small devices. Growth into commercial markets will provide the maturity required for more demanding biomass power markets. In the biopower area military users have powerful adoption incentive that will encourage them to become early adopters. The US defense establishment has a goal to use renewable energy for 25% of the facility electrical consumption by 2025. This SBIR will reduce technical risk, providing confidence for integrator partners to co-invest in commercialization of LTA-SOFC biomass generators.
INFINIUM is developing a new process for primary production of metals from their oxides. The heart of our process, which is a set of components known as Pure Oxygen Anodes™, is molten salt electrolysis with a zirconia solid electrolyte sheath between the molten salt and liquid metal anode. The process takes metal oxide, such as magnesium oxide, and produces pure metal at the cathodes and high-purity oxygen gas at the anodes, with impurities concentrating at various parts of the process for simple removal. The process works well, and the company has completed SBIR Phase I and Phase II on the science of magnesium oxide reduction using this method. Two of the highest cost items are electric power and silver for the anode. However, the nature of the process lends itself to injection of low-cost gaseous fuel, such as natural gas, to reduce the voltage and electrical energy required, and to create a reducing environment to use other liquid metals. This in effect creates an in situ solid oxide fuel cell inside the anode assembly. The goal of this Phase II project was to demonstrate those two capabilities in a working electrolysis anode. This project achieved just that: demonstration of a working silver-free anode using methane fuel and operating at lower voltage. In the process, it also demonstrated internal fuel reforming to eliminate coking due to high-temperature dissociation of methane into carbon and hydrogen. And it developed three different anode/current collector materials system options. The anode works well, and successfully produced two different reactive metals from their oxides. Finally, the report describes three options for using natural gas as the only energy source for metal production, which would be very efficient and, in most of the country, would result in lower emissions than electric power from the grid. This fueled anode provides considerable flexibility for this technology. Co-locating metal oxide reduction with production of metal oxide can dramatically reduce shipping costs: by 40% for magnesium and 50% for aluminum. Alternatively, co-locating metal oxide reduction with casting operations can save considerable energy: for example, half the energy usage of a typical die casting foundry is used to heat and melt metal, so providing hot liquid metal cuts the die caster's energy bill in half. Fueled anodes enable primary production "mini-mills" for these two cases, bringing these benefits even where electricity is relatively expensive. In terms of broader impacts, nine participants, including two undergraduates, developed new skills and understanding of thermodynamics, kinetics, electrochemistry, and high-temperature experimentation. Several gained hands-on experience with the company's new mass spectrometer. More broadly, technology developed in this project is having an enormous impact on the field of primary production of metals. This technology is emerging as the lowest-cost most energy-efficient highest-quality lowest-emissions method for producing rare earth metals such as dysprosium and neodymium used in the strongest permanent magnets. In September 2013, INFINIUM won an ARPA-E grant to test its feasibility for producing aluminum, bringing its benefits of energy efficiency and near-zero emissions to a $100B industry. And co-investigator Uday Pal is working on using this anode technology for single-step production of solar-grade silicon directly from naturally occurring quartzite. Magnesium is a wonderful engineering metal, with the best stiffness-to-weight and strength-to-weight ratios of all metals. Today it is widely used in mobile phone and laptop computer cases, but its cost and emissions have limited its use have been prohibitive for broader use in very light-weight automotive bodies. This project will likely reduce pollution emissions associated with magnesium production below that of the steel and aluminum it replaces, reducing emissions throughout the production-use-recycling vehicle life cycle. Clean low-cost rare earth metal production will have a similar impact on fast-growing industries such as wind turbines and hybrid and electric vehicle drive motor/generators. Aluminum is the second highest-volume metal, with growing application in motor vehicles such as the 2015 Ford F-150 with its all-aluminum body. And low-cost solar grade silicon will further reduce the cost of solar wafers, cells and modules, bringing even more markets below grid price parity. Geopolitically, the ability to economically produce magnesium and rare earth metals outside of China, and to produce aluminum profitably in North America, will likely have a very large imact. US auto makers are not willing to gamble on commodities such as these whose price has fluctuated wildly over the past ten years at the whim of the Chinese government. INFINIUM's Pure Oxygen Anodes™ technology could thus free these markets from Chinese control. In short, thanks in large part to its first funding from the NSF SBIR Phase I and this subsequent Phase II project, and this additional Phase II transfer project, INFINIUM is ushering in a new Clean Metal Age, in which clean energy and energy efficiency technologies are not compromised by "dirty" and politically problematic production of the metals they use.
