Electrochemical study of a planar solid oxide fuel cell: Role of support structures

This paper presents a performance analysis of a planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with different support structures, i.e., electrode (anode and cathode) and electrolyte supports. An electrochemical model, taking into account structural and operational parameters and gas diffusion at the electrodes, is used to analyze the characteristics of the planar SOFC. Simulation results demonstrate that under cell operation at an intermediate temperature (1073 K), an anode-supported SOFC is superior to an electrolyte- and cathode-supported SOFC. Analysis of individual cell voltage loss indicates that ohmic loss dominates the performance of an electrolyte-supported SOFC whereas activation and ohmic overpotentials constitute the major loss in an electrode-supported counterpart. Sensitivity analyses of the anode-supported SOFC show that decreasing the electrolyte and anode thickness can improve cell performance. A decrease in operating temperature causes the cell to operate at a lower range of current density due to an increase in ohmic and activation overpotentials. Further, increasing the operating pressure and degree of pre-reforming reduces the concentration overpotential and thereby enhances cell performance.