Why a more uniform fuel/oxygen distribution is critical for fuel cell stack performance improvement

Ni, Meng

doi:10.1002/er.4214

Cited by 14 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 8 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…For the current density distribution, it is observed in Figure that the co‐flow arrangement leads a more uniform current density distribution than the counter‐flow arrangement. The counter‐flow arrangement consumes most of H 2 near the inlet region, and the highly nonuniform H 2 concentration in the along channel direction has negative effects on the cell performance …”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three‐dimensional nonisothermal modeling of solid oxide fuel cell coupling electrochemical kinetics and species transport

Yan

Zhou

et al. 2019

Int J Energy Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary A three‐dimensional (3D) nonisothermal model is developed and applied for anode‐supported planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The mass and momentum, species, ion, electric, and heat transport equations are solved simultaneously by implementing the electrochemical kinetics and electrochemical reaction as volumetric source terms. The interconnect land limits the O2 transport under the land and lowers the local current density under the land. The effects of interconnect land width and cathode substrate thickness on SOFC cell performance are quantified in this study. Cathode stoichiometry is found to have a large effect on the SOFC cell temperature distribution. Under low‐cathode stoichiometry, significant temperature gradients are seen in the SOFC cell. Higher‐cathode stoichiometry is beneficial for lower temperature and more uniform current density distribution in SOFC cell. Co‐flow and counter‐flow arrangements are investigated and discussed with the model. Counter‐flow arrangement is found to induce a high temperature and high current density region near the H2 inlet. On the other hand, co‐flow arrangement leads high temperature and high current density to occur relatively downstream, a slightly lower maximum temperature on cell and considerably more uniform current density distribution. A 67.2‐cm2 SOFC cell is simulated considering the side cooling effect. The side cooling effectively lowers the cell temperature, at the same time, causes temperature, current density, and fuel utilization nonuniformity in the across multichannel direction. Because of the strong coupling of the in‐plane current density distribution and temperature distribution, limiting the locally high temperature and temperature gradient is critical for achieving a more uniform current density distribution in anode‐supported planar SOFC.

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Three‐dimensional nonisothermal modeling of solid oxide fuel cell coupling electrochemical kinetics and species transport

Yan

Zhou

et al. 2019

Int J Energy Res

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…More heat was released in higher load current according to Equation (4). More heat was released in higher load current according to Equation (4).…”

Section: Temperature Uniformity At Steady Statementioning

confidence: 99%

Cell and stack‐level study of steady‐state and transient behaviour of temperature uniformity of open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cells

et al. 2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary The steady‐state temperature uniformity and thermal transients of open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cell (PEMFC) at cell and stack level are researched experimentally in this study. The local temperatures are obtained by 30 thermocouples contacting the surfaces of cathode gas diffusion layers (GDL). The s temperature homogeneity under different load currents and air flow rates are investigated. The results reveal that the fluctuation of temperature distribution under different currents is small under the lowest air flow rate set in the experiments. Comparatively, the temperature is less uniform when the load current is higher under other air flow rates. The evaluation indicator, temperature uniformity index (TUI), varies nearly linearly with the current. And the maximum variation is 55.6% to 59.0%. This distinct behaviour is probably related to the existence of liquid water and its nonuniform distribution which can enlarge the temperature difference at high current. With respect to thermal transients, there is rapid deterioration in temperature uniformity when the load current is stepped up. It may arise from the uneven liquid water distribution which can lead to different temperature variation rates. Further, the research gives direction for optimization of cooling strategy and thermal management of open‐cathode PEMFC stack in application.

show abstract

“…As an electrochemical device, solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) directly transforms chemical energy into electrical energy without an intermediate conversion of heat energy. The SOFC shows great prospect as the main energy source in the future because it has high‐energy transformation efficiency, high specific energy, and little or no toxic emission . The main types of SOFCs are planar and tubular, of which planar type is more common.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Crack propagation of planar and corrugated solid oxide fuel cells during cooling process

2019

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Summary The corrugated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) can effectively improve energy density and transformation efficiency compared with conventional planar SOFC, but its stability and durability have not been systematically analyzed. The residual stress of SOFC may lead to crack initiation and propagation during cooling process, so stress distributions of planar and corrugated SOFCs are simulated to analyze the location of crack initiation. The materials of electrolyte, anode, and cathode in this paper are yttria‐stabilization zirconia (YSZ), Ni‐YSZ, and strontium‐doped lanthanum manganite (LSM), respectively. The result shows that the edge of cell is more prone to cracking. Therefore, precracks including edge crack and middle crack are introduced into anode‐electrolyte interfaces to investigate crack propagation of two types of SOFCs during cooling process. For corrugated SOFC, the cracks propagate more slowly, and the cell is less prone to interfacial delamination compared with planar SOFC. In addition, the interface energy release rates are obtained to further analyze crack propagation of two types of SOFCs, and the corrugated SOFC has lower energy release rate. The research in this paper provides guidance for stability analysis and lays a foundation for future mechanical analysis of corrugated SOFC.

show abstract

Why a more uniform fuel/oxygen distribution is critical for fuel cell stack performance improvement

Cited by 14 publications

References 8 publications

Three‐dimensional nonisothermal modeling of solid oxide fuel cell coupling electrochemical kinetics and species transport

Three‐dimensional nonisothermal modeling of solid oxide fuel cell coupling electrochemical kinetics and species transport

Cell and stack‐level study of steady‐state and transient behaviour of temperature uniformity of open‐cathode proton exchange membrane fuel cells

Crack propagation of planar and corrugated solid oxide fuel cells during cooling process

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About