The present study deals with modelling and validation of a planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) design fuelled by gas mixture of partially pre-reformed methane. A 3D model was developed using the ANSYS Fluent Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tool that was supported by an additional Fuel Cell Tools module. The governing equations for momentum, heat, gas species, ion and electron transport were implemented and coupled to kinetics describing the electrochemical and reforming reactions. In the model, the Water Gas Shift reaction in a porous anode layer was included. Electrochemical oxidation of hydrogen and carbon monoxide fuels were both considered. The developed model enabled to predict the distributions of temperature, current density and gas flow in the fuel cell.
In this work, a mid infrared thermography was used to study thermal behavior of solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a circular shape and a diameter of 90 mm. The emissivity of the anodic surface of the fuel cell was determined to be from 0.95 to 0.46 in the temperature range 550-1200 K and the profile and temperature distribution of the anodic surface of the unloaded cell was given. The surface temperature of the cell was determined during operation and the polarity changes from open circuit voltage (OCV) to 0.0 V. It was found that the cell self-heating effect decreases with increasing temperature of the cell.
In this work, we developed the lanthanum strontium cobalt ferrite and it’s composite with yttrium iron cobaltite (mass ratio of 1:1) cathodes as a thin layer on Ce0.8Sm0.2O1.9 electrolyte. Two kinds of electrode pastes were prepared, with and without 6 mm polystyrene beads as an additional pore former. The performance of cathode materials was investigated by electrochemical impedance spectroscopy as a function of electrode morphology, oxygen partial pressure, potential, and temperature. The polarization resistance of the more porous electrodes was lower than those electrodes prepared without additional pore former in the whole potential range at 800°C, slightly lower at 700°C and 600°C. The addition of yttrium iron cobaltite decreased the performance of both types of cathodes. The lower polarization resistance of porous cathodes is due to the facilitated gas diffusion through their structure.