Micro-tubular, single-chamber solid oxide fuel cell (MT-SC-SOFC) stacks : model development

Our previously developed numerical model has been used to study the flow, species and temperature distribution in a micro-tubular, single-chamber solid oxide fuel cell stack. The stack consists of three cells, spaced equally inside the gas-chamber. Two different configurations of the gas-chamber have been investigated, i.e., a bare gas-chamber and a porous material filled gas-chamber. The results show that the porous material filled gas-chamber is advantageous in improving the cell performance, as it forces the flow to pass through the cell, which improves mass transport via convection and enhances the reaction rate. The cell performance in the case of a bare gas-chamber follows in the following order: cell 1 > cell 2 > cell 3. However, the performance order is reversed for the porous gas-chamber case. This is due to enhanced flow which is forced to flow through the downstream cells, as we move along the gas-chamber length.