Mathematical modeling of a molten carbonate fuel cell (MCFC) stack

✍ Scribed by Sung-Yoon Lee; Do-Hyung Kim; Hee-Chun Lim; Gui-Yung Chung

• Publisher: Elsevier Science
• Year: 2010
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 882 KB
• Volume: 35
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0360-3199
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.04.070

✦ Synopsis

Mathematical modeling for the parallel flow Molten Carbonate Fuel Cell (MCFC) 150-cell stack has been made. In the 150-cell stack, all cells are connected in a series.

Even though each cell has a different current density distribution, the average current density of each cell should be the same for all cells in the stack. In order to get the same average current density of each cell in the stack, the operating voltages of each cell were adjusted. As a result, voltages of each cell increase slowly up to the 15th cell, maintain a constant value in the middle cells, and decrease from the 145th cell.

Temperatures of the matrixes with an electrolyte increase and reach a maximum value at the 60th cell, and decrease from the 148th cell. The current densities along the direction of gas flow in the middle cells increase rapidly and then decrease a little. Current density distributions in the lower and upper cells are more uniform than those in the middle cells.

The compositions of hydrogen in the anode gas and carbon dioxide in the cathode gas decrease in a similar way along the direction of the gas flow.