Performance Characteristics of a Micro-tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Operated with a Fuel-rich Methane Flame

A micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is directly combined with a fuel-rich methane flame in a simple, "no-chamber" setup. The multi-element diffusion flat flame burner (MEDB) is served as a fuel reformer and implements the quick starting process for the flame fuel cell. Experiments are performed based on novel anode supported micro-tubular SOFC cells and a multi-element diffusion flame burner for various equivalence ratios and flow rates. The SOFC is directly heated up by the flame from room temperature to operating temperature in less than 120 s. The maximum power generated by the fuel cell reached 0.45 W at the equivalence ratio of 1.2. The cell was operated for 8 hours at the equivalence ratio of 1.2 at a fixed voltage of 0.45 V without significant performance degradation. A transient two-dimensional SOFC model is developed to analyze the transient temperature field and the associated thermal stresses of the SOFC when the cell is suddenly exposed to a high temperature flame. The thermal shock resistance of the direct flame micro-tubular SOFC is analyzed and the result shows the excellent performance characteristics of the micro-tubular cell in the aspect of thermal shock resistance.