A Review of Progress in the UK Supergen Fuel Cell Programme

The Supergen fuel cell programme is the UK's flagship fuel cell research consortium, funded by the Research Councils. Established just under four years ago it brings together four academic partners (Imperial College, Newcastle University, Nottingham University and St Andrews University), three industry partners (Johnson Matthey, Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell systems and Ceres Power), and the UKs defence laboratory (DSTL), to work together to bring fundamental science to address key industry challenges in the fuel cell sector. This presentation will review progress made in tackling a number of key issues in solid oxide fuel cells, namely the constrained sintering of thick film electrolytes, electrolytes with higher conductivity at lower temperature, the relationship between fuel composition and anode behaviour - including work on sulphur poisoning and new anode materials, and new methods to characterize and model electrode performance.