Altair Nanotechnologies Inc. (Cody, WY) reported progress on its solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) developments. The use of nano-sized yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) enables production of a thinner film, which increases the oxyanion transfer efficiency. Altair has only recently made its nano YSZ available to fuel cell developers.
The nano-sized YSZ is reported to form the porous substrates that support the catalysts and high-temperature conductive ceramics required for the fuel cell to perform on hydrocarbon fuels. Several development cells have been forwarded to MIT for catalyst loading and reaction testing under their agreement with Altair. Altair has also provided sample quantities of its YSZ nanoparticles to a leading automotive group for evaluation, and has agreed to send samples of its complete SOFC core structure for testing in a generation mode.
