Modelling a methane fed solid oxide fuel cell with anode recirculation system

The high operation temperature of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) allows methane and other hydrocarbons to be directly used as fuels since they could be self-reformed inside the cells. However, carbon deposition caused by the reforming processes at the anode side usually leads to a significant reduction of triple phase boundary (TPB) and resulting a poor SOFC performance or even complete failure. According to previous research, the recycling of water vapour from the anode exhaust could possibly overcome this problem but also decrease the SOFC's efficiency. In this work, Matlab® simulink® is used to optimise the recycle rates under different conditions and for building a high performance control system that allows minimised steam addition to the methane fuel stream.