Electrochemical performance optimization of a conventional solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) has been massively performed with computational fluid dynamic (CFD) modelling but it’s usage in a proton conducting fuel cell (PCFC) is still minimal. PCFC is a category of SOFC but with proton conductor as electrolyte instead of oxygen-ion conductor in a conventional SOFC. The fabrication of high electrochemical performance of PCFC is desirable because of its ability to operate at lower temperature. The objective of this short review study is to explore the possibilities of CFD modelling application to improve electrochemical performance of a PCFC system. Some CFD study that have been done to SOFC and PCFC were reviewed. One main finding from this short review is that the application of CFD modelling in PCFC design optimization is still minimal. There is a lack of studies that focus on the impact of PCFC anode microstructure on transport phenomena of the PCFC; for example on gas diffusion. It was also found that CFD modelling software Ansys Fluent with add-on Fluent SOFC module that is widely applied to conventional oxygen-ion SOFC need to be modify using User Defined Function (UDF) in order to be used in PCFC system.
The main objective of this study is to perform a structural analysis of NiO-BCZY anode functional layer (AFL) with different weight ratio (NiO:BCZY = 20:80 and 40:60). NiO commercial powder and in-house developed BCZY synthesized by a sol-gel method are mixed and ground and then sintered at 1450° C for 5 hours to produce AFL powder. The single-cell (anode | CG-AFL| electrolyte | cathode) is fabricated with the anode substrates firstly die-pressed, then compositionally gradient anode functional layer (CG-AFL) and spin-coated with electrolyte thin film, accordingly. Structural characterization of AFL powder and conductivity of the single cell is performed using room temperature X-ray diffraction (XRD) and in-house developed electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) test station, respectively. Rietveld refinement analysis of the XRD data confirms the high purity single phase of NiO and BCZY. Both NiO and BCZY show a cubic crystal structure and each belongs to space group Fm-3m and Pm-3m, respectively. The lattice parameter (a = b = c) of NiO and BCZY are about 4.1818 Å3 and 4.3433 Å3 for 20NiO-80BCZY and 4.1825 Å3 and 4.3439 Å3 for 40NiO-60BCZY. EIS results show ohmic resistance (RS) and polarization resistance (RP) of the single cell are 14.8 and 16.23 Ωcm2 at 800 °C, respectively.
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