Recent advances in single-chamber fuel-cells: Experiment and modeling
Abstract
Single-chamber fuel cells (SCFC) are ones in which the fuel and oxidizer are premixed, and selective electrode catalysts are used to generate the oxygen partial pressure gradient that in a conventional dual-chamber design is produced by physical separation of the fuel and oxidizer streams. SCFCs have been shown capable of generating power densities above 700 mW/cm^2 with appropriate catalysts, making them potentially useful in many applications where the simplicity of a single gas chamber and absence of seals offsets the expected lower efficiency of SCFCs compared to dual-chamber SOFCs. SCFC performance is found to depend sensitively on cell microstructure, geometry, and flow conditions, making experimental optimization tedious. In this paper, we describe recent work focused on developing a quantitative understanding the physical processes responsible for SCFC performance, and the development of an experimentally-validated, physically-based numerical model to allow more rational design and optimization of SCFCs. The use of the model to explore the effects of fuel/oxidizer ratio, anode thickness, and flow configuration is discussed.
Additional Information
© 2006 Elsevier B.V. Received 16 January 2006; received in revised form 6 May 2006; accepted 6 May 2006. This work was supported by the DoD Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) within the Integrated Micropower Generator (IMG) program under grant N66001-01-1-8966. We greatly appreciate the constructive suggestions of Dr. Carlos Pantano.Additional details
- Eprint ID
- 23863
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.ssi.2006.05.008
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20110602-080336170
- N66001-01-1-8966
- Office of Naval Research (ONR)
- Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA)
- Created
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2011-06-02Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
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2021-11-09Created from EPrint's last_modified field