A Computer Model for Direct Carbonate Fuel Cells

A 3-D computer model, describing fluid flow, heat and mass transfer, and chemical and electrochemical reaction processes, has been developed for guiding the direct carbonate fuel cell (DFC) stack design. This model is able to analyze the direct internal reforming (DIR) as well as the integrated IIR (indirect internal reforming)-DIR designs. Reasonable agreements between computed and fuel cell tested results, such as flow variations, temperature distributions, cell potentials, and exhaust gas compositions as well as methane conversions, were obtained. Details of the model and comparisons of the modeling results with experimental DFC stack data are presented in the paper.