Thermodynamics and electrochemical performance of co- and counter-flow planar solid oxide fuel cells under an adiabatic operation environment

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is a promising energy conversion technology for accelerating the process of carbon neutrality. This paper develops and validates a 1D mathematical model for a planar SOFC (10 cm x 10 cm) along the fluid flow direction with a less than 0.2% deviation. When the SOFC operates in an adiabatic environment with different inlet gas temperatures (Tin) and current density (Iavg), the distributions of its key parameters are calculated and analyzed. The results show that the optimal inlet gas temperature for the SOFC working in an adiabatic environment is between 873 K and 973 K when Iavg varies from 0.05 A cm-2 to 0.25 A cm-2. The maximum temperature appears at the outlet position and between the outlet and the center point along the flue flow for the co-flow and counter-flow SOFC. Compared with the co-flow pattern, the counter-flow design can benefit the fuel cell power output when Tin and Iavg are identical, especially with lower Tin and higher Iavg. The output power of counter-flow SOFC is larger 11.3% than that of the co -flow one at most with the research range in this work.(c) 2023 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.