Effects of Fuel Prereforming on the Performance of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

A 2-D mathematical model was developed to simulate the performance of a natural gas steam prereformer for feeding a tubular solid oxide fuel cell. The governing equations for mass, energy, momentum as well as the rate equations are used to obtain the variations of temperature and species concentration in both radial and axial directions. The optimum geometrical and operating conditions for the steam reformer for maximum power generation are identified.

Keywords:

Solid oxide fuel cell , SOFC , steam reformer , Power generation , Optimization , Modeling