Three-dimensional numerical simulation and experimental validation on ammonia and hydrogen fueled micro tubular solid oxide fuel cell performance

• Published in: International journal of hydrogen energy 2022-04, Vol.47 (35), p.15865-15874
• Main Authors: Asmare, Molla, Ilbas, Mustafa, Cimen, Fethi Mustafa, Timurkutluk, Cigdem, Onbilgin, Sezer
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Ammonia; Experimental results; Hydrogen; Numerical simulation; Tubular solid oxide fuel cell
• ISSN: 0360-3199; 1879-3487
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2022.03.057

The main aim of this research is to investigate the performance of ammonia-powered microtubular solid oxide fuel cells in order to use ammonia as a possible candidate for eco-friendly and sustainable power generation systems. The performance of a direct ammonia-powered cell has been elucidated and validated with the experimental results of pure hydrogen gas at Niğde Ömer Halisdemir University Prof. T. Nejat Veziroğlu Clean Energy Research Center. For both studies, the cathode electrode is supplied with atmospheric air. The performance of anode, electrolyte, and cathode-supported microtubular solid oxide fuel cells has been compared numerically. The findings confirmed that the peak possible power densities obtained numerically using direct ammonia, hydrogen and experimentally using pure hydrogen gas are is 628.92 mW/cm2, 622.29 mW/cm2, and, 589.28 mW/cm2 respectively at the same geometrical dimensions, component materials, and operating parameters. Thus, the results of this study demonstrate that simultaneous experimental and numerical studies make a great contribution to minimizing biases due to literature data during model validation. The numerical simulation also indicates that the performance of cathode supported is superior to that of anode supported cells run with hydrogen and ammonia fuel. Likewise, parametric sweep analysis asserts that the working temperature has a greater effect than operating pressure on tubular cell performance. Therefore, the results of this study advise that ammonia will become a carbon-free alternative fuel for solid oxide fuel cells in the coming years. •Numerical and experimental investigation of MT-SOFC has been conducted simultaneously.•The performance of AS-MT-SOFC is superior next to CS-MT-SOFC.•The effect of working cell temperature is more influential than the operating pressure.•The predicted maximum possible power density for direct ammonia fed is very close to hydrogen.•The numerical result suggested that ammonia will be the primary fuel for SOFCs.