Parametric sensitivity analysis for a natural gas fueled high temperature tubular solid oxide fuel cell

Abstract

For more than the last two decades, there has been research going on to develop advanced energy technologies involving minimum environmental pollution, to replace the conventional fossil energy systems. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are one of the most promising, eco-friendly and efficient means for the generation of electricity to meet the future energy requirements. This research work focuses on the parametric sensitivity analysis for natural gas fueled high temperature tubular SOFC. Firstly, for the tubular SOFC, a one-dimensional radially symmetrical model has been developed and solved using the finite-difference method. Then, the effect of the variation of important operational and design parameters on its performance has been analyzed. The parameters typically include composition, inlet fuel temperature, pressure, length of SOFC tube and thicknesses of its components. The composition is expressed as steam to methane ratio and it has been observed that the voltage and power density developed by the SOFC diminishes as the ratio increases. Further, a change in the inlet fuel pressure of the tubular SOFC has no pronounced influence on the voltage and power density developed. On the other hand, with an increase in the inlet fuel temperature, a small improvement in these performance characteristics is exhibited. The axial length of the tubular SOFC does conspicuously influence its performance characteristics but solely at current densities greater than 4000A/m 2 . An increase in the thickness of its components results in a reduction in its voltage and power density developed. The largest decline in these performance characteristics with the increase in thickness is observed for electrolyte followed by cathode and anode respectively.

Effect of flow modes on operation characteristics of three‐dimensional non‐isothermal solid oxide fuel cell stack

“…Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is regarded as one of the most promising new energy technologies 1 due to its high fuel flexibility, 2,3 low environmental pollution, 4 small volume, 5 no Carnot cycle restriction for power generation efficiency, 6 and can be combined with a gas turbine for power generation 7 . Its performance has been comprehensively studied, 8‐12 and it has been applied on a certain scale 13 .…”

The electrochemical study of NixCe1−xO2−δ electrodes using natural gas as a fuel

“…The natural gas consisted of 63% CH 4 and 37% CO. The carbon forms on nickel-based anodes via the cracking of methane (eqn (14)) and the Boudouard reaction (eqn (15)):…”

“…Currently, significant research is focused on adapting and advancing Ni-based anodes to improve their resistance against carbon deposition in the presence of hydrocarbon fuels. 14 Ceria-based anodes exhibit mixed ionic and electronic conductivity (MIEC) and improved electro-catalytic activity at low temperatures via the reduction of Ce 4+ to Ce 3+ . 15 This reduction, described using the following equation, causes n-type defects and the formation of oxygen vacancies (O ν ) that also gives rise to mixed conduction:where O × O represents oxygen in the ceria lattice, represents a vacancy created by oxygen (with a 2+ charge) and e′ is an electron.…”

Computational and Experimental Research on the Influence of Supplied Gas Fuel Mixture on High-Temperature Fuel Cell Performance Characteristics

“…Thus, the problems solved by numerical methods include electrochemical process modeling, collector design, performance modeling, the influence of electrode microstructure, thermal stress analysis, and the development of new SOFC structural elements [27][28][29][30].…”

“…When analyzing publication activity from 2021 to 2024, it was revealed that the interest of researchers modeling SOFCs is aimed at studying the operation of a fuel cell using various types of organic and inorganic fuels, biofuels, and various agricultural and industrial wastes [12,14,16,27,38,39].…”