2D CFD Modeling of Ammonia Fueled Solid Oxide Fuel Cells With Proton Conducting Electrolyte

The use of ammonia as a fuel for solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) is a promising way for clean power generation. In this study, a 2D model is built to investigate the coupled transport and chemical/electrochemical reactions in a planar SOFC with proton conducting electrolyte (SOFC-H). The model consists of an electrochemical model relating the current density-voltage characteristics and a 2D computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model simulating the heat and mass transfer phenomena. The conservation laws for mass, momentum, energy and species are discretized and solved with the finite volume method (FVM). The coupling of pressure and velocity is treated with SIMPLEC algorithm. Simulations are conducted to study the distributions of current density, electrolyte Nernst potential, rate of ammonia thermal cracking and gas composition in the SOFC. The effects of operating potential and temperature on the rate of chemical/electrochemical reactions and the electric output of ammonia fueled SOFC-H are examined.