A novel concept for improved thermal management of the planar SOFC

A new design for the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) planar stack is proposed to minimise the thermal gradients in the cell. This design involves including a secondary air channel with flow in the counter direction to the cathodic air channel. The effectiveness of the new design is tested by means of a tank in series reactor (TSR) model of the SOFC. It is found that the new design is capable of reducing the steady state temperature difference across the cell to less than 2 K over a range of voltages, while satisfying the requirements on fuel utilisation (FU) and cell average temperature. This is achieved by manipulating the primary air channel inlet flow rate and the secondary air channel inlet temperature. More modelling and experimental studies are required to further investigate the proposed design.

[1]  J. Young,et al.  Thermodynamic and transport properties of gases for use in solid oxide fuel cell modelling , 2002 .

[2]  F. Jabbari,et al.  Feedback control of solid oxide fuel cell spatial temperature variation , 2010 .

[3]  Kohei Ito,et al.  Performance analysis of planar-type unit SOFC considering current and temperature distributions , 2000 .

[4]  Achim Kienle,et al.  A strategy for the spatial temperature control of a molten carbonate fuel cell system , 2006 .

[5]  Daniel Favrat,et al.  Local current measurement in a solid oxide fuel cell repeat element , 2007 .

[6]  R. Reid,et al.  The Properties of Gases and Liquids , 1977 .

[7]  Xin-jian Zhu,et al.  Two-dimensional dynamic simulation of a direct internal reforming solid oxide fuel cell , 2007 .

[8]  Hocine Ben Moussa,et al.  Study of species, temperature distributions and the solid oxide fuel cells performance in a 2-D model , 2011 .

[9]  I. Yasuda,et al.  3-D model calculation for planar SOFC , 2001 .

[10]  Daniel Favrat,et al.  Simulation of thermal stresses in anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell stacks. Part I: Probability of failure of the cells , 2009 .

[11]  Kai Sundmacher,et al.  Nonlinear analysis of current instabilities in high temperature fuel cells , 2004 .

[12]  M. Khaleel,et al.  Three-dimensional thermo-fluid electrochemical modeling of planar SOFC stacks , 2003 .

[13]  Moses O. Tadé,et al.  A CFD-based model of a planar SOFC for anode flow field design , 2009 .

[14]  John B. Young.  Thermofluid Modeling of Fuel Cells , 2007 .

[15]  Kai Sundmacher,et al.  Theoretical investigation of steady state multiplicities in solid oxide fuel cells* , 2006 .

[16]  Moses O. Tadé,et al.  A dynamic CSTR model for SOFC , 2009 .

[17]  Moses O. Tadé,et al.  Improved Tank in Series Model for the Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell , 2011 .

[18]  S. Maharudrayya,et al.  Pressure losses in laminar flow through serpentine channels in fuel cell stacks , 2004 .

[19]  A. Faghri,et al.  Challenges and opportunities of thermal management issues related to fuel cell technology and modeling , 2005 .

[20]  Toshio Suzuki,et al.  Fabrication and evaluation of a novel cathode-supported honeycomb SOFC stack , 2009 .

[21]  Y. Inui,et al.  Analytical investigation on cell temperature control method of planar solid oxide fuel cell , 2006 .

[22]  K. Ahmed,et al.  Kinetics of internal steam reforming of methane on Ni/YSZ-based anodes for solid oxide fuel cells , 2000 .

[23]  A. Nakajo,et al.  Modeling of thermal stresses and probability of survival of tubular SOFC , 2006 .