Numerical Investigation of a Hydrogen-fuelled Planar AP-SOFC Performance with Special Focus on Safe Operation

Abstract

The All-Porous Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (AP-SOFC) is a scheme that links a dual and single chamber SOFC, combining the potential advantages of both. The AP-SOFC is a novel concept that benefits from dual-chamber SOFC technology with a porous electrolyte, which allows the tunned distribution of oxygen on the anode side that allows the controlling of air and fuel distribution that is not possible in a single chamber scheme of SOFC. Intermixing of fuel and air in AP-SOFC systems could cause the formation of explosive gas mixtures, especially when hydrogen is used as fuel due to its high flammability in air mixture. Thus, the aim of this study is to investigate the safe operation of a hydrogen-fuelled planar AP-SOFC using a two-dimensional finite element method based numerical model. To achieve this goal, different combinations of the hydrogen and oxygen inlet mole fraction are considered. Since a change in the inlet mole fraction of hydrogen and oxygen can affect the cell performance, four safe conditions for these combinations are chosen and compared. Finally, the best combination of the inlet mole fraction of hydrogen and oxygen having both safe operation and enhanced cell performance is reported.

Keywords

• all porous
• solid oxide fuel cell
• hydrogen-fuelled
• safe operation
• porous electrolyte