Planar SOFC system modelling and simulation including a 3D stack module

Amirpiran Amiri, Periasamy Vijay, Moses O. Tadé*, Khaliq Ahmed, Gordon D. Ingram, Vishnu Pareek, Ranjeet Utikar

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system consists of a fuel cell stack with its auxiliary components. Modelling an entire SOFC system can be simplified by employing standard process flowsheeting software. However, no in-built SOFC module exists within any of the commercial flowsheet simulators. In Amiri et al. (Comput. Chem. Eng., 2015, 78:10-23), a rigorous SOFC module was developed to fill this gap. That work outlined a multi-scale approach to SOFC modelling and presented analyses at compartment, channel and cell scales. The current work extends the approach to stack and system scales. Two case studies were conducted on a simulated multilayer, planar SOFC stack with its balance of plant (BoP) components. Firstly, the effect of flow maldistribution in the stack manifold on the SOFC's internal variables was examined. Secondly, the interaction between the stack and the BoP was investigated through the effect of recycling depleted fuel. The results showed that anode gas recycling could be used for managing the gradients within the stack, while also improving fuel utilisation and water management.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)2919-2930
Number of pages12
JournalInternational Journal of Hydrogen Energy
Volume41
Issue number4
Early online date15 Jan 2016
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 30 Jan 2016

Bibliographical note

© 2016, Elsevier. Licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/

Keywords

  • aspen plus
  • balance of plant
  • SOFC
  • stack
  • system

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