Numerical multi-physical optimization of operating condition and current collecting setup for large-area solid oxide fuel cells

  • Chengrong YU 1 ,
  • Zehua PAN , 1 ,
  • Hongying ZHANG 1 ,
  • Bin CHEN 2 ,
  • Wanbing GUAN 3 ,
  • Bin MIAO 4 ,
  • Siew Hwa CHAN 4 ,
  • Zheng ZHONG 1 ,
  • Yexin ZHOU , 1
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  • 1. School of Science, Harbin Institute of Technology, Shenzhen 518055, China
  • 2. Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Deep Earth Sciences and Geothermal Energy Exploitation and Utilization, Institute of Deep Earth Sciences and Green Energy, Shenzhen University, Shenzhen 518060, China
  • 3. Key Laboratory of Advanced Fuel Cells and Electrolyzers Technology of Zhejiang Province, Ningbo Institute of Materials Technology and Engineering of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, Ningbo 315201, China
  • 4. Energy Research Institute at NTU (ERIAN), Nanyang Technological University, Singapore 639798, Singapore
panzehua@hit.edu.cn (Z. PAN)
zhouyexin@hit.edu.cn (Y. ZHOU)

Received date: 20 Sep 2023

Accepted date: 13 Nov 2023

Published date: 15 Jun 2024

Copyright

2023 Higher Education Press

Abstract

Due to the depletion of traditional fossil fuels and the aggravation of related environmental problems, hydrogen energy is gaining more attention all over the world. Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising power generation technology operating on hydrogen with a high efficiency. To further boost the power output of a single cell and thus a single stack, increasing the cell area is an effective route. However, it was recently found that further increasing the effective area of an SOFC single cell with a flat-tubular structure and symmetric double-sided cathodes would result in a lower areal performance. In this work, a multi-physical model is built to study the effect of the effective area on the cell performance. The distribution of different physical fields is systematically analyzed. Optimization of the cell performance is also pursued by systematically tuning the cell operating condition and the current collection setup. An improvement of 42% is revealed by modifying the inlet gas flow rates and by enhancing the current collection. In the future, optimization of cell geometry will be performed to improve the homogeneity of different physical fields and thus to improve the stability of the cell.

Cite this article

Chengrong YU , Zehua PAN , Hongying ZHANG , Bin CHEN , Wanbing GUAN , Bin MIAO , Siew Hwa CHAN , Zheng ZHONG , Yexin ZHOU . Numerical multi-physical optimization of operating condition and current collecting setup for large-area solid oxide fuel cells[J]. Frontiers in Energy, 2024 , 18(3) : 356 -368 . DOI: 10.1007/s11708-023-0919-z

Acknowledgements

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant Nos. 11802106, 11932005, U20A20251, and 52102226), the Science, Technology and Innovation Commission of Shenzhen Municipality (Grant No. GJHZ20220913143009017), and the Development and Reform Commission of Shenzhen Municipality, China (Grant No. XMHT20220103004).

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.
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