Investigating the effects of reactant gas flow geometrical shape on the performance of solid oxide fuel cell

ABSTRACT Solid oxide fuel cells powered by renewable fuels will be a panacea for our current challenges to meet the global energy demand and mitigate climate changes stemming from the widespread use of carbon-rich fuels. Accordingly, this numerical investigation has examined the geometrical shape effects of reactant gas ducts, and the thickness of electrodes on solid oxide fuel cell performance. The model was also validated using the experimental result of a rectangular shape gas flow duct conducted at Dr. T. Nejat Veziroğlu Clean Energy Research Center of Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University in Türkiye. Thus, the finding of this work disclosed that the semicircular gas flow duct has outstanding performance following rectangular, trapezoidal and triangular geometrical shapes. The additional remarkable results of this work are that the shape of the reactant gas flow channel and the thickness of the cathode have more substantial effects on airflow than fuel flow under identical electrolyte thickness. The finding also revealed that a peak power density has been achieved when the thickness of an anode gets thicker up to a certain limit then it is sharply decreasing. On the contrary, the performance of the model is increasing as the thickness of the air electrode is increasing. 9 Solid oxide fuel cells powered by renewable fuels panacea for our current challenges to meet the global energy demand and mitigate climate changes stemming from the widespread use of carbon-rich fuels rectangular shape gas flow duct conducted at Dr. T. Nejat VeziroğluNiğdeHalisdemir peak power density has been achieved when the thickness of an anode gets thicker up to a certain limitis decreasingincreasing.