Temperature and voltage responses of a molten carbonate fuel cell in the presence of a hydrogen fuel leakage

A two dimensional (2-D), dynamic model of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) was developed using COMSOL Multi-physics. The model was used to investigate the dynamic behaviour of the MCFC in the presence of hydrogen fuel leakage. A leakage was modelled as a known outflow velocity at the anode gas channel. The effects of leakage velocity and the leakage location were investigated. The simulations show that anode electrode temperature increases as the leakage velocity increases. The voltage generated is shown to decrease at the start of the leakage occurrence due to loss of hydrogen gas. Later the voltage increases as the anode temperature increases. The results also show that the changes of temperature and voltage are more significant if a leakage occurs nearer to the inlet compared to that at the outlet of anode gas channel.