Modeling of transport, chemical and electrochemical phenomena in a cathode-supported SOFC

This paper investigates the performance of a planar cathode-supported solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with composite electrodes using a detailed numerical model. The methane reforming reaction is included in the model and takes place mostly in the porous, thin anode at the high operating temperature of 800-1000^°C. A single computational domain comprises the fuel and air channels and the electrodes-electrolyte assembly eliminating the need for internal boundary conditions. The equations governing transport and chemical and electrochemical processes for mass, momentum, chemical and charged species and energy are solved using Star-CD augmented by subroutines written in-house. The operating cell voltage is determined by the potential difference between the cathode and the anode, whose potentials are fixed. Results of temperature, chemical species, current density and electric potential distribution for a co-flow configuration are shown and discussed. It is found that the sub-cooling effect observed in anode-supported cells is almost ameliorated, making the cathode-supported cell favorable from the viewpoint of material stability.