Start-up and operation characteristics of a flame fuel cell unit

This work aims to investigate a black start-up process for micro cogeneration (combined heat and power, CHP) systems based on solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). A novel micro-CHP system concept using a flame fuel cell (FFC) for start-up is proposed. An FFC unit is experimentally implemented and studied by integrating a porous media burner with a micro-tubular SOFC. The FFC is demonstrated to start up within seconds with the fuel-rich combustion of a methane-air mixture. The porous media burner acts as a non-catalytic fuel processor for the SOFC with a maximum methane reforming efficiency of 49%. The flame fuel cell performance is tested for various equivalence ratios at a fixed inlet gas velocity of 0.15 m/s. The power reaches a significant value of 1.5 W at 0.7 V with a single fuel cell when operating with a fuel-rich flame at the equivalence ratio of 1.6. A flame fuel cell unit with multi-cell configurations has the potential to provide heat and power simultaneously for micro-CHP systems during the start-up process without an external energy source. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.