Three-dimensional numerical simulation and experimental validation on ammonia and hydrogen fueled micro tubular solid oxide fuel cell performance

The main aim of this research is to investigate the performance of ammonia-powered microtubular solid oxide fuel cells in order to use ammonia as a possible candidate for eco-friendly and sustainable power generation systems. The performance of a direct ammonia-powered cell has been elucidated and validated with the experimental results of pure hydrogen gas at Nigde Omer Halisdemir University Prof. T. Nejat Veziroglu Clean Energy Research Center. For both studies, the cathode electrode is supplied with atmospheric air. The performance of anode, electrolyte, and cathode-supported microtubular solid oxide fuel cells has been compared numerically. The findings confirmed that the peak possible power densities obtained numerically using direct ammonia, hydrogen and experimentally using pure hydrogen gas are is 628.92 mW/cm(2), 622.29 mW/cm(2)' and, 589.28 mW/cm(2) respectively at the same geometrical dimensions, component materials, and operating parameters. Thus, the results of this study demonstrate that simultaneous experimental and numerical studies make a great contribution to minimizing biases due to literature data during model validation. The numerical simulation also indicates that the performance of cathode supported is superior to that of anode supported cells run with hydrogen and ammonia fuel. Likewise, parametric sweep analysis asserts that the working temperature has a greater effect than operating pressure on tubular cell performance. Therefore, the results of this study advise that ammonia will become a carbon-free alter- native fuel for solid oxide fuel cells in the coming years. (C) 2022 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.