Experimental characterization of direct ammonia solid oxide fuel cell for stationary application
Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are power generation devices that use the chemical energy of hydrogen or other fuels to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity. The aim of this thesis, in particular, is to experimentally investigate a SOFC stack fed by ammonia. Several tests have been carried out...
| Autor: | |
|---|---|
| Tipo de recurso: | tesis de maestría |
| Fecha de publicación: | 2025 |
| País: | España |
| Institución: | Universitat Politècnica de Catalunya (UPC) |
| Repositorio: | UPCommons. Portal del coneixement obert de la UPC |
| Idioma: | inglés |
| OAI Identifier: | oai:upcommons.upc.edu:2117/429580 |
| Acceso en línea: | https://hdl.handle.net/2117/429580 |
| Access Level: | acceso abierto |
| Palabra clave: | Solid oxide fuel cells Clean energy Solid oxide fuel cell Ammonia Ammonia cracking Hydrogen Area specific resistance Anode gas recirculation Piles de combustible d'òxid sòlid Energia neta Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Eficiència energètica Àrees temàtiques de la UPC::Energies::Gestió de l'energia |
| Sumario: | Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are power generation devices that use the chemical energy of hydrogen or other fuels to cleanly and efficiently produce electricity. The aim of this thesis, in particular, is to experimentally investigate a SOFC stack fed by ammonia. Several tests have been carried out at temperatures from 690 to 750 °C to compare the device performance using ammonia as inlet fuel against that using hydrogen or a stoichiometric mixture of hydrogen and nitrogen (3:1 molar basis). The obtained polarization curves showed similar performances for hydrogen and the mixture, while that of ammonia presents a lower performance and deviates from the rest as temperature increases. The electrical efficiency ranges from 45.0 to 51.4% at full load, with ammonia being the most efficient fuel. If an ideal case where external cracking does not have any additional energy consumption is considered, these values can reach up to 52.3%. Finally, the anode gas recirculation has been simulated with different hydrogen-nitrogen mixtures to analyze its effect on the stack performance and the electrical efficiency. Performance decreases as the recirculation factor increases, while the electrical efficiency ranges from 29.4 to 66.7% in the studied cases, showing an exponential increase at partial load. If the previous ideal case is again considered, these values can reach up to 75.8%, concluding that the values that could be reached with ammonia are in this same order of magnitude. The results of this thesis confirm the feasibility of ammonia as inlet fuel for SOFCs, showing higher electrical efficiencies than those of hydrogen at the expense of lowering the performance. |
|---|