Three-dimensional Modeling of Internal Reforming SOFC with a Focus on the Interconnect Size Effect

Abstract

A three-dimensional (3D) model of methane fed SOFC stack has been developed to investigate interconnect size effect on stack performance. Different from the existing studies on interconnect size effect which only consider hydrogen (H 2 ) as a fuel, we considered direct internal reforming (DIR) of methane and water gas shift reaction (WGSR) in anode. In addition, both H 2 and carbon monoxide (CO) are considered as electrochemically active fuel in this model. Parametric simulations are performed to study the geometric effect of interconnect on stack performance. Different from H 2 fuel case, the temperature decreases along the gas channel of methane fed SOFC. It is also found that the interconnect rib size has obvious effect on the current density distribution. The results also show that the optimum ratio Ra is 0.3 for stacks with different ratio of the inlet methane to steam, while the optimum ratio is 0.2 for SOFC running on H 2 .

Synergistic effects of sulfur poisoning and gas diffusion on polarization loss in anodes of solid oxide fuel cells

“…In addition, other factors must be considered for the rational design of SOFC electrodes, such as the strain effect between diffusion layer and activation layer, the thermal expansion between different phases, the large specific area of the activation layer, and the high diffusion flux in the diffusion layer. Therefore, a porosity gradient in the electrode is favorable …”

A computational fluid dynamics and finite element analysis design of a microtubular solid oxide fuel cell stack for fixed wing mini unmanned aerial vehicles

“…The study found that too high temperature degrades a SOFC material and too low temperature impairs fuel cell power. Recently, Sun and Ni [33] developed a three-dimensional SOFC stack model with direct internal reforming of methane using the CFD and finite element analysis (FEA) software COMSOL Multiphysics to investigate effects of interconnect rib size, temperature distribution, concentration of products, and current density distribution on the stack design. The study suggested that the Ra ratio of 0.3 for different combinations of methane and steam fuels, and the Ra ratio of 0.2 for hydrogen fuel are the optimum values for the best performance of the SOFC stack.…”

Numerical Study of H2 Production and Thermal Stress for Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells with Various Ribs/Channels

“…Using a 2D multi-physics model, Kong et al [16,17] performed optimization of the rib width for both anode-and cathode-supported SOFCs; they obtained an analytical expression for the optimal rib width, which can be helpful in the engineering design of SOFCs. Ni et al [18] developed an 3D model of methane-fed SOFCs considering both the direct internal reforming (DIR) of methane and the water-gas shift reaction (WGSR) occurring in the anode. Their findings revealed that, for the stacks with different inlet ratios of methane to steam, the optimal rib/channel width ratio was 0.3.…”