An experimental investigation of solid oxide fuel cell performance at variable operating conditions

Abstract

Cell temperature and selection of the reactant gases are crucial parameters for the design and optimization of fuel cell performance. In this study, effect of operating conditions on the performance of Solid Oxide Fuel (SOFC) has been investigated. Application of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) was applied to optimize operations conditions in SOFC. For this purpose, an experimental set up for testing of SOFC has been established to investigate the effect of Hydrogen, Oxygen, Nitrogen flow rates and cell temperature parameters on cell performance. Hydrogen flow rate, oxygen flow rate, nitrogen flow rate and cell temperature were the main parameters considered and they were varied between 0.25 and 1 L/min, 0.5 and 1 L/min, 0 and 1 L/min and 700-800 °C in the analyses respectively. The maximum power density was found as 0.572 W/cm2 in the experiments.