A planar anode-supported Solid Oxide Fuel Cell model with internal reforming of natural gas

Abstract

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are of great interest due to their high energy efficiency, low emission level, and multiple fuel utilization. SOFC can operate with various kinds of fuels such as natural gas, carbon monoxide, methanol, ethanol, and hydrocarbon compounds, and they are becoming one of the main competitors among environmentally friendly energy sources for the future. In this study, a mathematical model of a co-flow planar anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell with internal reforming of natural gas has been developed. The model simultaneously solves mass, energy transport equations, and chemical as well as electrochemical reactions. The model can effectively predict the compound species distributions as well as the cell performance under specific operating conditions. The main result is a rather small temperature gradient obtained at 800 °C with S/C = 1 in classical operating conditions. The cell performance is reported for several operating temperatures and pressures. The cell performance is specified in terms of cell voltage and power density at any specific current density. The influence of electrode microstructure on cell performance was investigated. The simulation results show that the steady state performance is almost insensitive to microstructure of cells such as porosity and tortuosity unlike the operating pressure and temperature. However, for SOFC power output enhancement, the power output could be maximized by adjusting the pore size to an optimal value, similarly to porosity and tortuosity. At standard operating pressure (1 atm) and 800 °C with 48% fuel utilization, when an output cell voltage was 0.73 V, a current density of 0.38 A cm-2 with a power density of 0.28 W cm-2 was predicted. The accuracy of the model was validated by comparing with existing experimental results from the available literature.