Experiment and numerical simulation on the performance of a kw-scale molten carbonate fuel cell stack

Abstract

A high-temperature molten carbonate fuel cell stack was studied experimentally and computationally. Experimental data for fuel cell temperature was obtained when the stack was running under given operational conditions. A 3-D CFD numerical model was set up and used to simulate the central fuel cell in the stack. It includes the mass, momentum and energy conservation equations, the ideal gas law and an empirical equation for cell voltage. The model was used to simulate the transient behavior of the fuel cell under the same operational conditions as those of the experiment. Simulation results show that the transient temperature and current and power densities reach their maximal values at the channel outlet. A comparison of the modeling results and the experimental data shows the good agreement

Artificial neural network model of molten carbonate fuel cells: Validation on experimental data

“…Researchers have published papers on a large number of mathematical models of MCFCs. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] An MCFC model should factor in electrochemistry, heat, mass, and charge transfer processes. The MCFC models found in the literature contain mathematical descriptions of the processes mentioned above.…”

“…Researchers have published papers on a large number of mathematical models of MCFCs . An MCFC model should factor in electrochemistry, heat, mass, and charge transfer processes.…”

“…They are influenced by, among others, the types of materials used, structure of particular cell layers, thickness of these layers, their conductivity, cell temperature, and composition of the inlet gases to the cell. Most MCFC models are based on the Nernst equation and include losses of activation, concentration, and ohmic losses or losses on the anode, electrolyte, and cathode . There are also molten carbonate fuel cell models based on other assumptions, eg, reduced order model, kinetic model, and model using ANNs …”

Three-dimensional modeling of polarization characteristics in molten carbonate fuel cells using peroxide and superoxide mechanisms

“…Findlay [32] utilized the values for the permeability in a proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) which is 1.9 e À12 m 2 . On the other hand, the CarmaneKozeny relation for an aggregated bed of spheres [33,34] can be used to estimate the value of the permeability:…”

“…where k eff is the effective electric conductivity in the liquid phase which is approximated based on the following correlation for electrodes [31] k eff ¼ kðεqÞ 1:5 (34) According to this study, the effective conductivity of the pore electrolyte in the anode is 0.03e93 S m À1 , depending on the degree of electrolyte filling. However, the following correlation is used to estimate the ionic conductivity [40] k ¼ k 0 expðÀE k =TÞ (35) In addition, S f e denotes the carbonate ion generation or consumption in the electrodes.…”