Electrical Production Effect on the Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Overheating

Abstract

In this work, a steady-state three-dimensional model is employed to investigate the heat transfer phenomena in a Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (P-SOFC) and determine the current density impact on the overheating of this fuel cell type. The thermoelectric characteristics of various components of the P-SOFC are provided from the standard materials: Ni-YSZ for the anode, YSZ for the electrolyte, La1-xSrxMnO3 for the cathode, and LaCrO3 for the interconnectors. The partial differential equations governing the heat transfer phenomena in the different cell parts are modelled using the finite difference method in a threedimensional environment. A program in FORTRAN language is locally developed for solving simultaneously the discretized heat conduction equation. The interest of this work is focused on determining the temperature profiles, fields, and distributions as well as evaluating and analysing the heat created by the current densities produced by the cell itself. The obtained results' analysis shows that for the considered geometric configuration, the P-SOFC components' heating is found to be proportional to the electric energy production.

Investigation of the Effect of Operating Parameters on Nernst Voltage in Hydrogen-Oxygen Fuel Cells

“…Since the entropy change of the H2/O2 reaction is negative, the Nernst voltage of H2/O2 fuel cells decreases with an increase in temperature of 0.84 mV/ºC (Çavuşoğlu 2006). There are other studies in the literature where it is observed that the fuel cell Nernst voltage decreases with increasing temperature (Arıç et al, 2019;Lyu et al, 2020;Outeiro et al, 2008;Riad et al, 2023;Sahli et al, 2017;Şefkat and Özel, 2018).…”

“…Therefore, it is expected that the Nernst voltage will increase as the mole ratio of oxygen at the cathode increases. In some studies in the literature, it has been stated that Nernst voltage is directly proportional to the oxygen-mole ratio (Sahli et al, 2017).…”

“…They concluded that the Nernst voltage increases with increasing hydrogen and oxygen pressures and decreases with increasing water pressure and temperature. (Sahli et al (2017) examined the effect of various operating parameters on cell voltage and power density. As a result, they stated that the cell voltage and power density are proportional to the operating temperature and oxygen concentration, but inversely proportional to the supply pressure, fuel moisture and electrolyte thickness.…”