Iman Mohammad Ebrahimi - Department of Chemical and Polymer Engineering, South Tehran Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran
Mohammad Hasan Eikani - Department of Chemical Technologies, Iranian Research Organization for Science and Technology (IROST), Tehran, Iran,

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are of great interest due to their high energy efficiency, low emission level, and multiple fuel utilization. SOFC can operate with various kinds of fuels such as natural gas, carbon monoxide, methanol, ethanol, and hydrocarbon compounds, and they are becoming one of the main competitors among environmentally friendly energy sources for the future. In this study, a mathematical model of a co - flow planar anode - supported solid oxide fuel cell with internal reforming of natural gas has been developed. The model simultaneously solves mass, energy transport equations, and chemical as well as electrochemical reactions.The CFD model consisted of 5 submodels utilizing the Navier Stokes and continuity equations for momentum transport, Maxwell-Stefan model and Knudsen diffusion for mass transport, energy equation for heat transfer, a chemical reforming model, and an electrochemical model considering distributed charge transfer over the cell, including Butler-Volmer type kinetics. Resulting model polarization curves showed good agreement with experimental data.

SOFC, modeling, anode - supported, internal reforming