Effect of the Reactant Transportation on Performance of a Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Abstract

The process of reactant transportation greatly affects the performance of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs). Therefore, a three-dimension numerical SOFC model was built to evaluate mainly the effect of the reactant transportation coupling of heat and mass transfer and electrochemical reactions, and the reliability of numerical calculations was validated. Numerical studies revealed the correlation of both increase of reactant concentration gradients and improved mass transfer capability of multi reactants in gas diffusion electrode with the enhancement of the SOFC performance, in the condition of enough supplies of the fuel and the oxidant. Further studies identified the oxygen ions conductivity in electrolytes played a critical role in energy output and thus the performance of SOFCs. For example, the current density would increase by 65% if the ionic conductivity of electrolytes doubled. This study gives insight into the significance of operational conditions, electrolytes, and structures on the ionic oxygen conductivity and further on the optimization of the SOFCs. Overall, the numerical modeling leads a clear path toward the optimization of SOFCs.