Material development for emerging energy technologies

Transcription

1 Material development for emerging energy technologies

2 Need and Approach Need Sustainable power generation is needed for the mitigation of global warming caused by greenhouse gas emissions. Advanced materials are needed to improve the efficiency and durability of renewable energy technologies like biofuels, wind and solar. The intermittency and distributed nature of the renewables is balanced by smart grids and energy storage. Carbon capture and storage (CCS) is needed for future fossil power plants. Material requirements by generation 4 nuclear fission and nuclear fusion concepts are most challenging. Advanced materials and devices are needed for the production, storage, distribution and conversion of hydrogen, the ultimate clean fuel. Approach Tailored materials, coatings and concepts are developed for biomass and oxyfuel combustion and gasification. Light weight structures and components are developed for arctic and off shore wind power. Nanomaterials are developed for batteries and fuel cells. Active international co-operation in the field of nuclear technologies. Modelling, monitoring and evaluation of material performance in all the applications. 2

3 VTT s competence Energy conversion processes and applications. Tailoring of nanostructured materials and coatings, e.g. catalysts, polymers and metal ceramic composites. Sol-gel and thermally sprayed coatings. Catalysts for gasification, gas purification and fuel cells. Printed electronics, e.g. OLED, solar cells, batteries and fuel cells. Erosion, corrosion, wear and fatigue monitoring of materials in harsh environments (chemical, thermal, pressure, friction, radiation). Light weight, high strength and low activation structural materials for wind power, boilers and nuclear energy. Smart materials and composites based on SMAs, piezo ceramics, magnetorheological and electrorheological liquids and elastomers Vibration and noise control 3

4 Research example 1: Modelling and synthesis of oxygen reduction catalysts for PEM fuel cells Improved ORR catalysts are needed in order to improve the durability and to reduce the cost of PEM fuel cells. Synthesis of Pt nanoparticles for high electrochemical surface area. Partial replacement of Pt by alloying with cheaper metals, e.g. Co, Ni, Cr, Mn. Molecular modelling of the ORR on different binary and tertiary alloys. Synthesis of the preferred alloys on carbon black. Replacement of carbon black by carbon nanotubes as catalyst support. Analysis of catalyst performance and degradation mechanisms. Results Pt2CoCr as the preferred tertiary alloy. Synthesis of Pt2CoCr on carbon black. Synthesis of Pt on CNT. O 2 H 2 O+ H 2 O + 4e - HO 2- + OH - + H 2 O + 2e - O H 2 O + 4e - 4 OH - 4

5 Research example 2: Oxygen carriers for chemical looping combustion (CLC) Carbon capture and storage is needed for future fossil power plants. The CLC process shows higher plant efficiency in comparison to post combustion CO2 separation or oxyfuel combustion with oxygen separation from air. Process and particle scale modelling. Synthesis of model oxygen carriers. Ex-situ and bench scale testing of the model carriers. Model verification as well as process and carrier optimization. 2 Synthesis of optimized carriers. Bench scale testing of the optimized carriers. Oxidation 1 4 Results Process modelling. 3 Synthesis of model Fe2O3/Al2O3 carriers. Ex-situ testing. Reduction Air (to storage) 5

6 Research example 3: Adaptive wind turbine blade Load reduction on large wind turbine blades. Vibration damping. Blade adaption to wind speed variations. Modelling and design of composite structure with embedded SMA wires. Lamination of the structure with embedded wires. Control system for the adaptive structure. Performance verification in a wind tunnel. Results 1 m prototype blade successfully designed and operated. The lift force was doubled after activation in a wind tunnel. Only a small part of a large blade need to be adaptive. 6

7 Research example 4: Organic solar cells Roll-to-roll production of organic solar cell modules Cost effective manufacturing methods Power conversion efficiency more than 5% Suitable printing techniques for solar cell structures Novel module architectures Stable and efficient photoactive materials Printable electrodes Optimized processing conditions Fully roll-to-roll printed solar cells Results Large area printing of photoactive materials Printed organic solar cells with high power conversion efficiency Modeling of optical and electrical phenomena occurring in bulk heterojunction solar cell structures 7

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9 Research example 5: Gas phase synthesis of Ni, Co and Cu nanopowders Economical synthesis technique for industrial scale production of metallic nanopowders High efficiency materials for energy storage applications Materials for printable electrodes and current collectors Replacement of platinum group catalyst with cheaper metals Continuous feeding system for precursor materials Modeling of the reaction zone for particle production Rapid quenching of the flow Online monitoring of the production Particle collection and purification of the gas flow nm X30000 Results Production technique based on hydrogen reduction of chloride precursors is patented Yield from precursor to nanopowder more than 95% Particles easy to handle due to excellent oxidation resistance High purity of the powders without calcination Continuous operation of the facility for more than 8 hours Narrow size spectrum of the produced particles 9

10 Research example 6: Coating development for fireside protection New material solutions for power plants using challenging fuels enabling higher service temperatures and increased efficiency Allow different strategies for material design: increased lifetime, cheaper tube material, local repair, controlled lifetime aiming recoating process during maintenance => undamaged base material Exploiting modeling approaches in material development Process optimisation towards dense coatings with controlled coating tube interface Gaseous environmental and deposit tests for performance evaluation Examples Tube wear by oxide scale formation mechanism can be avoided by proper coating material selection Compared to uncoated, radical increase in lifetime of tubing in erosion-corrosion environment in biomass burning plants has been demonstrated Protective Fe-based amorphous arc-sprayed coating after deposition testing. Only thin sulphur, sodium and potassium containing layer on the surface. Deposit Coating Base metal 10 Trial from the power plant to demonstrate coating suffering no oxidation under the deposit layer

11 Research example 7: Nuclear fusion materials Materials and manufacturing technologies pay a key role in development towards fusion power plants, e.g., ITER, W-7X, DEMO and PROTOTYPE. Radiation damage resistance, ductility, low activation and lifetime are critical issues in material development as well as multi-material components. Model and characterize materials and define design parameters Innovative material characterizing methods in fusion relevant environments Results Fracture mechanical and radiation damage evaluation of bimetallic CuCrZr alloy and 316L(N) stainless steel joints Innovative pneumatic loading devices for tensile and creep fatigue testing under neutron radiation Viability of powder hot isostatic pressing method in manufacturing of First Wall components 11

12 Research example 8: Material performance and evaluation Technoeconomic and safe life of critical components Operational condition and ageing Repairability of damaged or ageing parts Materials degradation mechanisms and modelling Service performance and applicability; simulation and verification Monitoring technologies and diagnostics Examples Creep (and creep-crack) simulation of materials with defects Ultrasonic evaluation of dissimilar metal welds by Phased Array technology Electrochemical evaluation and modelling of metal-oxide-water interactions CORROSION Corrosion Cumulative corrosion MONTH CUMULATIVE CORROSION 12

13 Research facilities and equipment Powder processing laboratory for synthesis, grinding, agglomeration, heat treatment and analysis of metal, ceramic and polymer powders for further processing. Plastics and composite processing and polymer modification laboratory. HVOF spray. Gas phase synthesis of nanoparticles. Corrosion, environmentally assisted cracking, erosion and fatigue testing. Autoclave platform for determining materials properties under realistic service environments and loading conditions (LWR, SCWR, H2S) High temperature corrosion laboratory. Monitoring of service environment, components Mechanical and microstructural characterization (i.e. SEM/EDS, SIMSS, FEG-STEM) Fuel cell and battery testing equipment. Centre for Printed Intelligence, R2R processing of printed electronics. 13