A Thin Film Electrode Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Model

Abstract

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are becoming one of the main competitors among environmental friendly energy sources due to low emission rates, high electrical generating efficiency and potential for low operating cost. This work presents systematic to develop and validate the microscopic scale models of a single cell SOFC supplied with humidified hydrogen. The model considers the porous silicon-supported thin film SOFC, in which the electrode microstructure is packed by cylindrical shaped ionic and electronic conducting particles. The model involves mass transfer phenomena inside electrodes coupled with electrochemical reaction, as well as transportation of electrons and ions through the respective electron and ion conducting particles inside the electrodes. The investigation confirms the strong effects of microstructure geometry to improve the SOFC performance, especially the increasing of the electrochemical active surface area. The largest active surface area of electrode is achieved when the size and solid volumetric fraction of ion and electron conducting particles are equal. The accuracy of the model was validated by comparing with published experimental data.