Thermodynamic Modeling and Analysis of Proton Ceramic Fuel Cells: Power Optimization

The principal objective of the present work is to realize thermodynamic modeling and analysis of the Proton Ceramic Fuel Cell (PCFC); particular attention is given to evaluate and optimize the power density generated by PCFCs according to the electrolyte, anode, and cathode thicknesses, water content in the oxidant and fuel, operating temperature, current density, and voltage. To implement the thermodynamic model, the PCFC voltage is represented by the difference between the Nernst potential and the total voltage loss generated in the electrolyte and electrodes (ohmic, activation, and concentration overpotentials) during PCFC operation. A FORTRAN program is developed to study the impact of these parameters on PCFC power density. After comparing the obtained results in this investigation to those of literature that are measured experimentally, they are presented a good concordance with root mean square error (RMSE) and mean bias error of 0.0572 and 0.0058, respectively. The conducted optimization, in this work, is realized based on the graphical method. The most important conclusions are summed in two points, PCFC power density is proportional to the operating temperature, and it is inversely proportional to the electrolyte and electrodes thicknesses and fuel and air humidification.