Abstract
In the present study, the simulation of the direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) using a hybrid Lattice Boltzmann and finite volume approach is performed. The numerical model was first validated against available experimental data. Parametric studies were carried out to investigate the effect of the microstructure of the carbon fuel on the DCFC performance. The increase of the specific surface area (SSA) or porosity was found to minimize the voltage drop in the cell and ameliorate its output power density. In contrary, the increase of the tortuosity was found to inversely affect these results.
Highlights
Fuel cells are small-scale reactors that allow the conversion of various types of fuels into electric power, which is a high-quality energy [1]
The main steps circumvented by using direct carbon fuel cell (DCFC) are gasification and filtration processes required in the conversion of biomass into fuel gas before supplying the latter to the other types of fuel cells
In the present work, dedicated to the anodic polarization, we model and simulate the DCFC using the Lattice Boltzmann method
Summary
Fuel cells are small-scale reactors that allow the conversion of various types of fuels into electric power, which is a high-quality energy [1]. The use of high specific surface area (SSA) material in the electrodes (biochar for the anode), contributes to increase the current density and thereby reduces the cell surface area required to reach a given current (I = i × Scell) and the size of the fuel cell. The tubular design has the advantage to offer higher energy efficiencies even if it suffers from high ohmic losses and low energy densities. In the presence of electrical current in the DCFC, the cell voltage may drop due to the activation, ohmic and concentration losses. The performance of the DCFC can be enhanced by reducing the polarization losses associated to different transport processes in the fuel cell. 250 A/m, the gain accompanying the increase of the SSA is variable with the current density while it remains practically constant above this value
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