Numerical study of thermoelectric characteristics of a planar solid oxide fuel cell with direct internal reforming of methane

A three-dimensional mathematical thermo-fluid model coupling the electrochemical kinetics with fluid dynamics was developed to simulate the heat and mass transfer in planar anode-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC). The internal reforming reactions and electrochemical reactions of carbon monoxide and hydrogen in the porous anode layer were analyzed. The temperature, species mole fraction, current density, overpotential loss and other performance parameters of the single cell unit were obtained by a commercial CFD code (Fluent) and external sub-routine. Results show that the current density produced by electrochemical reactions of carbon monoxide cannot be ignored, the cathode overpotential loss is the biggest one among the three overpotential losses, and that the proper decrease of the operating voltage leads to the increase of the current density, PEN structure temperature, fuel utilization factor, fuel efficiency and power output of the SOFC.