Modeling ammonia-fueled co-flow dual-channel protonic-ceramic fuel cells

Huayang Zhu, Canan Karakaya, Robert J. Kee

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

8 Scopus citations

Abstract

This paper reports the model development for a dual-channel protonic-ceramic fuel cell (PCFC) operating on ammonia fuel. The model considers the coupled interactions of several physical and chemical processes, including three-dimensional heat conduction within the bipolar plates and the membrane-electrode assembly (MEA), one-dimensional flow within the fuel and air channels, detailed heterogeneous catalytic reactions within the porous composite anode structure, Butler–Volmer representation of the charge-transfer chemistry, and Nernst–Planck transport of three charged defects (protons, oxygen vacancies, and small polarons) within the dense electrolyte membrane. The membrane-electrode assembly is composed of a Ni-BCZYYb ((Formula presented.)) anode, a BCZYYb electrolyte membrane, and a BCFZY ((Formula presented.)) cathode. Chemical and physical parameters for the MEA model are established using previously published button-cell data. One aspect of the study is to investigate the partial ammonia decomposition upstream of the fuel cell. Such fuel cracking increases the H (Formula presented.) content of the fuel entering the PCFC, which may have benefits. However, endothermic ammonia pyrolysis within the composite anode structure assists with thermal control of the cell. The dual-channel model can be considered as the unit cell of a full fuel-cell stack.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1568-1582
Number of pages15
JournalInternational Journal of Green Energy
Volume19
Issue number14
DOIs
StatePublished - 2022

Keywords

  • Co-flow channels
  • NH cracking
  • Protonic ceramic fuel cell
  • ammonia

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