Modelling of SOFC for performance simulation of advanced power cycles

Fuel cells are a relatively new technology with many potentialities of being a main char- acter in the power generation market in the near future. This work aims at developing a performance steady state model of a planar SOFC which, in the proceeding of the project, will have the final target of being integrated into a pre-existing software in or- der to simulate advanced power cycles. The model is characterised by its flexibility in terms of possible fuels employable (methane, hydrogen, Natural Gas (NG) and methanol) and in the wide range of operating conditions which can be simulated, in order to have a broader spectrum of possible technologies to be explored. The proposed model has been validated successfully with a case of high temperature SOFC with Direct Internal Reforming (DIR) of methane in a co-flow configuration. Moreover, it has been used to produce useful results able to provide deep insights in the performance characteristics of fuel cells, which would be extremely helpful in the study of new configurations of advanced power plants.