Comparison of the multicomponent mass transfer models for the prediction of the concentration overpotential for solid oxide fuel cell anodes

Abstract

In this study, multicomponent mass diffusion models, namely the Stefan–Maxwell model (SMM), the Dusty Gas model (DGM) and the Binary Friction model (BFM) have been compared in terms of their predictive capabilities of the concentration polarization of an anode supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) anode. The results show that other than the pore diameter, current density and concentration of reactants, which have a high importance in concentration polarization predictions, the tortuosity (or porosity/tortuosity) term, has a substantial effect on the model predictions. Contrary to the previous discussions in the literature, for the fitted value of tortuosities, SMM and DGM predictions are similar, even for an average pore radius as small as 2.6e−07 and current density as high as 1.5 A cm −2. Also it is shown that the BFM predictions are similar to DGM for the case investigated in this study. Moreover, in this study, the effect of the pressure gradient term in the DGM and the BFM has been investigated by including and excluding this term from the model equations. It is shown that for the case investigated and model assumptions used in this study, the terms including the pressure coefficient have an insignificant effect on the predictions of both DGM and BFM and therefore they can be neglected.