Thermo-electrochemical modeling of the transport phenomena and electrochemical reactions in ammonia fed solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract

A 2D model is developed to study the coupled transport and reaction in ammonia (NH3) fed solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) based on proton conducting electrolyte (SOFC-H) and oxygen ion conducting electrolyte (SOFC-O). The model integrates the previously developed electrochemical model with a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model and is capable of predicting the heat and mass transfer as well as the electrochemical characteristics of NH3 fed SOFCs. Parametric simulations are conducted to study the distributions of local current density, gas composition, temperature contours and velocity profiles. The effect of electrode permeability on SOFC-H performance is examined. The performance of NH3 fed SOFC-H is compared with H2 fed SOFC-H and small difference between them is found. Comparison between SOFC-H and SOFC-O is made. The model is an extension of previously developed model and can serve as a useful tool for SOFC research.