A solid oxide fuel cell micro-scale modeling with spherical particle shaped electrodes

¹ Department of Mechanical Engineering, King Mongkut’s University of Technology Thonburi, 126 Pracha-utid Road, Bangmod, Thungkru, Bangkok 10140, Thailand
² Groupe de Recherche sur l’Énergétique des Milieux Ionisés (GREMI), UMR 6606 CNRS-Université d’Orléans, BP 6744, 45067 Orléans Cedex 2, France

^a e-mail: penyarat@yahoo.com
^b e-mail: wishsanuruk.wec@kmutt.ac.th

Received: 21 April 2010
Revised: 28 December 2010
Accepted: 28 March 2011
Published online: 18 May 2011

Abstract

A micro-scale model of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) involving the mass transfer together with the electrochemical reaction, the electron and ion transports through the respective spherically shaped electron- and ion-conducting particles inside the electrodes was mathematically developed. Couples of useful dimensionless parameters were introduced in order to represent the characteristics of the cell. The predicted cell performance was showed according to various operating and design conditions. The effects of micro-scale electrode geometry on the cell performance were also taken into account. Parametric study according to the volumetric fraction of ionic and electronic conducting particles was conducted in order to examine the effects of operating conditions on the cell overpotentials. The study results substantiate the fact that SOFC overpotential could be effectively decreased by increasing the operating temperature as well as operating pressure. This present study reveals the working mechanisms of SOFC at the microscale level, while demonstrating the use of micro-scale relations to enhance the SOFC performance. The accuracy of the presented model was validated by comparing to already existing experimental results from the available literatures.