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Modeling of mass and charge transport in a solid oxide fuel cell anode structure by a 3D lattice Boltzmann approach

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Abstract

A 3D model at microscale by the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) is proposed for part of an anode of a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) to analyze the interaction between the transport and reaction processes and structural parameters. The equations of charge, momentum, heat and mass transport are simulated in the model. The modeling geometry is created with randomly placed spheres to resemble the part of the anode structure close to the electrolyte. The electrochemical reaction processes are captured at specific sites where spheres representing Ni and YSZ materials are present with void space. This work focuses on analyzing the effect of structural parameters such as porosity, and percentage of active reaction sites on the ionic current density and concentration of H2 using LBM. It is shown that LBM can be used to simulate an SOFC anode at microscale and evaluate the effect of structural parameters on the transport processes to improve the performance of the SOFC anode. It was found that increasing the porosity from 30 to 50 % decreased the ionic current density due to a reduction in the number of reaction sites. Also the consumption of H2 decreased with increasing porosity. When the percentage of active reaction sites was increased while the porosity was kept constant, the ionic current density increased. However, the H2 concentration was slightly reduced when the percentage of active reaction sites was increased. The gas flow tortuosity decreased with increasing porosity.

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Abbreviations

AV :

Surface area to volume (m2/m3)

b :

Particle distribution function, ion/electron transport

C :

Concentration (mol/m3)

D e :

Effective diffusivity (m2/s)

D eff :

Average effective diffusivity (m2/s)

D Keff :

Effective Knudsen diffusivity (m2/s)

d p :

Particle diameter (m)

e :

Base velocity in the lattice Boltzmann model

E :

Activation energy (kJ/mol)

E :

Actual voltage (V)

E eq :

Equilibrium voltage (V)

f :

Particle distribution function, momentum transport

F :

Faraday’s constant (96,485 A s/mol)

g :

Particle distribution function, mass transport

h :

Particle distribution function, heat transport

i :

Current density (A/m2)

L :

Porous domain length (m)

M:

Molecular weight (g/mol)

p :

Pressure (atm)

Q :

Heat flow (J/s)

R:

Gas constant [8.3145 J/(mol K)]

Re :

Reynolds number (–)

R j :

Reaction rate (mol/s)

S :

Entropy (J/mol K)

T :

Temperature (K)

t :

Time (s)

u :

Velocity vector (m/s)

u, v :

Velocity (m/s)

x, y, z :

Position (m)

α :

Lattice direction (–)

β :

Transfer coefficient in the Butler–Volmer equation (–)

ε :

Porosity (–)

η :

Polarization (V)

ρ :

Density (kg/m3)

σ :

Conductivity (S/m) or characteristic length (Å)

τ :

Relaxation time (–)

ν :

Kinematic viscosity (m2/s)

ϕ :

Electric potential (V)

Ω :

Collision operator (–)

Ω D :

Dimensionless collision integral (–)

BGK:

Bhatnagar, Gross, Krook (method, collision operator)

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics

FEM:

Finite element method

FDM:

Finite difference method

FIB:

Focused ion beam

FVM:

Finite volume method

LBM:

Lattice Boltzmann method

PDF:

Particle distribution function

SEM:

Scanning electron microscopy

SOFC:

Solid oxide fuel cell

TPB:

Three-phase boundary

YSZ:

Yttria-stabilized zirconia

H2 :

Hydrogen

H2O:

Water

Ni:

Nickel

O2 :

Oxygen

O2− :

Oxygen ions

act:

Activation

conc:

Concentration

e:

Electronic, electrochemical

io:

Ionic

j:

Species index

k:

Species index

ohm:

Ohmic

r:

Reaction

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Acknowledgments

The Swedish Research Council (VR-621-2010-4581) and the European Research Council (ERC-226238-MMFCs) are gratefully acknowledged for the financial support of this research work. Also, the authors want to acknowledge the Swedish National Infrastructure for Computing (SNIC) for the use of the computer cluster Lunarc.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Energy Sciences, Faculty of Engineering, Lund University, Box 118, 221 00, Lund, Sweden

    Hedvig Paradis, Martin Andersson & Bengt Sundén

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  1. Hedvig Paradis
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Correspondence to Hedvig Paradis.

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Paradis, H., Andersson, M. & Sundén, B. Modeling of mass and charge transport in a solid oxide fuel cell anode structure by a 3D lattice Boltzmann approach. Heat Mass Transfer 52, 1529–1540 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-015-1670-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-015-1670-8

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