Analysis of Performance and Thermal-Fluid Characteristics in a Planar Type Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

This work studied internal loss factors (flow rate, pressure, partial pressure, voltage, current, temperature, etc.) in a unit cell and stack of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) with different separator materials, operation temperature and types of gas supply channels by employing computational fluid dynamics (CFD). A steel separator (AISI430) was superior to a ceramic plate (LaCrO3) in an aspect of thermal stress due to high thermal conductivity but inferior at average current density and fuel utilization rate. As initial temperature at the cell inlet was lowered from 950 degrees C to 650 degrees C per each pattern of gas flow (co-flow and counter-flow), useful data were acquired to analyze a performance drop. I-V curves at 650 degrees C and 900 degrees C, which involved various parameters as separator materials and directions of gas supply, compared performance characterization between low and high temperature SOFC and also implied the most effective combination. [DOI:10.1115/1.4006054]