Both technology and quality management for electrode paste production, for screen-printing and firing electrolyte supported MEAs will be transferred to Kerafol. So Kerafol will have the ability to position itself as a leading and worldwide operating specialist for electrolyte supported cells.

SOFCs in mobile and stationary systems produce electric power from fossil and renewable energy sources with high efficiency. That is why they are of vital importance for the future energy mixture facing the current movements in the energy markets. During the past years the basic SOFC technology has been developed and now it is essential to decrease the production costs and increase the power.

The cells can consist of standard materials like partially and fully stabilized zirconia. To increase the power density also Scandia doped MEAs will be made available. The scientists at the IKTS expect nearly a doubling of the power density from currently 0.28 W/cm² to 0.45 W/cm² at 850°C and 0.7 Volt. The currently reached long-term stability with 0.5 % loss of power in 1000 hours should be hold.

Kerafol Keramische Folien GmbH in Eschenbach is a worldwide operating specialist for developing and producing ceramic tapes and substrates. Ultra-modern production lines and clean room technologies are available to produce oxide and non-oxide ceramic products from 20 µm to 3 mm in thickness and up to 1 m in width by tape casting.

One of Kerafol’s core competencies is the high volume manufacturing of zirconia tapes and substrates for SOFC stacks, electronic devices and sensors for the automotive industry. Kerafol offers substrates and MEAs based on YSZ (Yttria Stabilized Zirconia) to the world market and provides at this stage all well known research institutes and companies, which are involved in the development of SOFC technology.

The Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems in Dresden is one of the worldwide leading institutes for high-performance ceramics and has a long time experience in developing thick-film materials (cermet and polymer pastes) for energy management, sensor technology and micro systems. 

Since the formation of the IKTS in 1992, ceramic high temperature fuel cells have been established as a main research. 

On the basis of many projects the scientific fundamentals have been established for designing and manufacturing planar MEAs and stacks and all single technologies like electrode manufacturing and characterization, glass sealing techniques, design of interconnector plates including the contacting of anode and cathode, assembling and initializing of stacks and 3D simulation have been developed.

The excellent cooperation between Kerafol and IKTS exists now for several years and covers many different fields. In 2003 the work on cost-efficient and powerful MEAs for Solid Oxide Fuel Cells was started, which now reaches a new stage with transferring it into a production. With this milestone in commercialization the IKTS scientists and engineers have again made an important key technology available for the fuel cell industry. The institute plans to extent its activities in fuel cell technology and is ready for further cooperations.