A MICRO TUBULAR SOFC AND STACK TESTING APPERATUS: TO PROVIDE A MEANS OF DEVELOPING HIGHLY EFFICIENT PORTABLE AND AUXILARY POWER PACKS FOR THE FUTURE

Fuel cells are devices that convert fuels directly into energy chemically as opposed to the Carnot limited combustion energy conversion process. The Micro-Tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (MT-SOFC) is a type of SOFC that has a diameter on the scale of millimeters. It has the advantage over the more common larger tubular and planar types because it can be heated up very rapidly to operational temperatures and can provide more power per volume. To develop a stack design that is very efficient and cost effective it is common practice that a combination of numerical modeling and validation should be used. In order to develop models that can provide information about how the cells should be positioned within arrays, it was considered that a high temperature wind tunnel would be a good tool to develop. This tool will allow the observation of multi physical phenomena associated with single cells and arrays of cells with an infrared camera. While some experimental tests have taken place, this paper outlines some numerical simulation results. These results have already indicated some key points that should be considered for an optimised reactor design including the oxygen concentration at the rear of cylindrical electrodes in cross flow.