Numerical Simulation of the Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell Performance Under Different Operational Conditions

Thermal management of high temperature fuel cells is critical to fuel cell operation and reliability. Locally extreme cell temperature may cause high thermal stress and accelerated corrosion process, which could shorten the cell life and induce local electric and thermal contact loss. Fuel cell temperature usually is controlled by the gas flow stream cooling, or the internal reforming if the internal reforming process is incorporated inside the high temperature fuel cells. This paper discusses the gas flow rate effect on a single cell performance based on mathematical model. The parameter distribution and cell performance versus the gas flow rate are presented.