Improved connecting piece for flat-plate solid oxide fuel cell stack and thermal management method
Technical Field
The invention relates to a flat-plate solid oxide fuel cell, in particular to an improved connecting piece for a flat-plate solid oxide fuel cell stack, belonging to the technical field of solid oxide fuel cells.
Background
A Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) is a device that can directly convert chemical energy into electrical energy, and has the advantages of high energy utilization rate, flexible Fuel and the like. The SOFC unit consists of PEN layers (anode, electrolyte, cathode) and connectors. The connecting piece is a component which is covered outside the cathode and the anode of the SOFC and is carved with a flow passage, and is an important component of the SOFC. The main functions of the connecting piece include: firstly, connecting the anode and the cathode of the adjacent single cell; secondly, the conductor is used for electron transmission between adjacent single cells; and thirdly, the flow channels engraved on the base plate are channels for flowing reactants and products and have the function of distributing gas. The structural design of the connecting member directly affects the output performance and long-term stability of the battery.
For a flat SOFC, the main structure of the current connector is of the parallel straight channel type, as shown in fig. 1. Mainly comprises a gas inlet 1-1, a gas flow passage 1-2, parallel ribs 1-3 and a gas outlet 1-4. The working process is as follows: fuel gas or air enters the connecting piece from the gas inlet 1-1, flows in the gas flow channel 1-2 and diffuses into the porous electrode to react, the generated current is led out of the cell through the parallel ribs 1-3, and the gas generated after the reaction flows out of the cell from the gas outlet 1-4. The connector using parallel straight channels is simple in structure and easy to process, but the connector only has the functions of conducting electricity and providing channels for gas, has limited functions, and causes uneven gas distribution, thereby affecting the overall performance and thermo-mechanical stability of the battery.
At present, research on the connecting piece mainly focuses on improving the uneven gas distribution problem and selecting heat conducting/electric conducting materials, and the development of other functions of the connecting piece is not involved.
Disclosure of Invention
The invention aims to provide an improved connecting piece for a flat-plate type solid oxide fuel cell stack, which can carry out thermal management on the cell stack, reduce the maximum temperature difference in the cell stack and homogenize the temperature distribution of the cell stack.
In order to achieve the purpose, the technical scheme adopted by the invention is as follows: an improved connecting piece for a flat-plate solid oxide fuel cell stack comprises a square base plate, wherein a plurality of convex parallel ribs are uniformly arranged on the upper surface of the base plate at intervals along the length direction, the parallel ribs and the base plate are integrally formed, a groove is formed between every two adjacent parallel ribs, the tail of the groove is closed, a partition plate parallel to the base plate is arranged in the groove, the lower surface of the partition plate is a heat absorption surface, a certain amount of Ni catalyst coating is arranged on the lower surface of the partition plate at intervals, and the tail of the partition plate is provided with air holes for gas flow; the flow channel surrounded by the substrate, the partition plate and the parallel ribs is a heat management area, the flow channel surrounded by the partition plate, the parallel ribs and the battery PEN layer is a flow area, the left side of the heat management area is a gas inlet, and the left side of the flow area is a gas outlet.
Preferably, the improved connecting piece is made of high-temperature-resistant metal or alloy.
Preferably, the pore diameter of the air hole is 0.8-1.2 mm.
The invention also provides a heat management method based on the improved connecting piece for the flat-plate solid oxide fuel cell stack, which is characterized in that ammonia gas/hydrogen gas/nitrogen gas/water vapor mixed gas with a certain temperature is introduced at a gas inlet of the connecting piece at the speed of 1.0-1.2m/s (the proportion of ammonia gas/hydrogen gas/nitrogen gas and water vapor in the mixed gas is 12% -10%: 83% -85%: 5%), ammonia gas in the mixed gas enters a catalyst Ni coating arranged at a heat absorption surface through diffusion, and is cracked and absorbed under the action of a catalyst Ni to absorb heat, so that the cell stack is rapidly cooled; the cracked mixed gas flows to the flow area through the air holes, and the mixed gas diffuses into the PEN layer porous electrode to perform electrochemical reaction while flowing in the flow area and generate electric energy; the reacted gas flows to the gas outlet of the connecting piece along the flow area and flows out of the connecting piece.
Preferably, the mixed gas is introduced at a speed of 1m/s, the mole fraction of ammonia in the mixed gas is 10%, and the mole fraction of hydrogen in the mixed gas is 85%.
Compared with the prior art, the improved connecting piece is designed with a regional function, the heat absorption principle that the reaction speed of the ammonia cracking endothermic reaction is positively correlated with the temperature (namely, the higher the temperature, the more the heat absorption capacity), the structural design that the catalyst is directionally arranged at the specific position of the heat absorption surface and the air holes are formed at the tail part of the partition plate, and the combined regulation of the mixed gas component and the inlet speed are combined, so that the accurate matching and control of the local electrochemical reaction and the local heat absorption capacity in the flat SOFC battery stack are finally realized, the nonuniformity of the temperature distribution in the battery stack is greatly improved, and the output performance of the battery stack is improved.
Drawings
Fig. 1 is a schematic structural diagram of a currently existing SOFC connection;
FIG. 2 is a schematic structural view of an improved connector according to the present invention;
fig. 3 is a schematic representation of a two-dimensional structure of a SOFC unit incorporating the improved connector of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is the maximum temperature difference of the cell at different gas compositions and velocities at the inlet using the connector of the present invention at a cell voltage of 0.8V;
FIG. 5 is the maximum temperature difference of the cell at different gas compositions and velocities at the inlet using the connector of the present invention at a cell voltage of 0.9V;
FIG. 6 is a graph of the average current density of the cell at various gas compositions and velocities at the inlet using the connector of the present invention at a cell voltage of 0.8V;
FIG. 7 is a graph of the average current density of the cell at various gas compositions and velocities at the inlet using the connector of the present invention at a cell voltage of 0.9V;
fig. 8 is a two-dimensional temperature profile of a SOFC unit without the use of the connectors of the present invention, with only 5 times the amount of air introduced into the cathode;
fig. 9 is a two-dimensional temperature profile of a SOFC unit using the improved connector of the present invention;
in the figure, 1-1 gas inlet, 1-2 gas flow channels, 1-3 parallel ribs and 1-4 gas outlet; 2-1 gas inlet, 2-2 gas flow channel, 2-3 parallel rib, 2-4 base plate, 2-5 gas outlet and 2-6 baffle plate; 3-1 heat management area, 3-2 air holes, 3-3 flow area, 3-4 battery PEN layer, 3-5 cathode flow channel and 3-6 heat absorption surface.
Detailed Description
The invention is described in further detail below with reference to the figures and specific examples.
As shown in fig. 2 to 3, the present invention provides an improved connector for a flat plate type solid oxide fuel cell stack, which comprises a square base plate 2-4, a plurality of convex parallel ribs 2-3 are uniformly arranged on the upper surface of the base plate 2-4 along the length direction at intervals, the parallel ribs 2-3 and the base plate 2-4 are integrally formed, a groove is formed between two adjacent parallel ribs 2-3, the tail part of the groove is closed, a clapboard 2-6 parallel to the substrate 2-4 is arranged in the groove, the lower surface of the separator 2-6 is a heat absorption surface 3-6, a certain amount of catalyst Ni coatings are arranged on the lower surface of the separator 2-6 at intervals, the tail part of the separator 2-6 is provided with air holes 3-2 for gas flow, and the aperture of the air holes is preferably set to be 0.8-1.2 mm; the flow channel surrounded by the substrate 2-4, the partition plate 2-6 and the parallel ribs 2-3 is a heat management area 3-1, the flow channel surrounded by the partition plate 2-6, the parallel ribs 2-3 and the battery PEN layer 3-4 is a flow area 3-3, the left side of the heat management area 3-1 is a gas inlet 2-1, and the left side of the flow area 3-3 is a gas outlet 2-5.
In order to adapt to the working environment of the battery, the improved connecting piece is made of high-temperature-resistant metal or alloy.
The invention also provides a flat SOFC battery stack comprising the improved connecting piece. And assembling the connecting piece and the battery PEN layer into a battery unit, and stacking layer by layer to assemble a battery stack.
In the working process of the cell stack, ammonia gas/hydrogen gas/nitrogen gas/water vapor mixed gas with a certain temperature is introduced at the gas inlet 2-1 of the connecting piece at a speed of not less than 1m/s, the ammonia gas in the mixed gas enters a catalyst Ni coating arranged at the position 3-6 of the heat absorption surface through diffusion, and is cracked and absorbed under the action of the catalyst Ni to absorb heat and absorb reaction heat from the cell, so that the cell stack is rapidly cooled; the cracked mixed gas flows to a flow area 3-3 through an air hole 3-2, and the mixed gas flows in the flow area 3-3 and diffuses into a PEN layer porous electrode to perform electrochemical reaction and generate electric energy; the reacted gas flows along the flow area 3-3 to the gas outlet 2-5 of the connecting piece and flows out of the connecting piece.
Because the heat generation and the battery performance of the battery are different under different voltages, the battery can generate electricityThere are different temperature distributions and current densities. In order for the improved coupling of the present invention to function adequately at different operating conditions, the optimum operating conditions of the inlet gas at different voltages are discussed herein. Taking the current density as a parameter for representing the performance of the battery; the maximum temperature difference is taken as a characteristic parameter of the battery temperature distribution. The gas introduced consists of 4 components: h2、 NH3、H2O、N2. So define H2And NH3In a total molar fraction of 0.95, N2And H2The total molar fraction of O was 0.05.
The temperature profile of the cell when using the improved connector of the invention is related to the inlet gas condition parameters (inlet velocity of the gas, ratio of components in the gas). The maximum temperature differences of the cell when the inlet velocity was varied from 1m/s to 3m/s and when the total hydrogen mole fraction was varied from 0.80 to 0.85 at voltages of 0.8V and 0.9V are shown in fig. 4 and 5, respectively; the maximum current density is shown in fig. 6 and 7. The simulation was implemented using COMSOL commercial software. FIGS. 4 and 5 illustrate that the most uniform temperature distribution of the cell occurs at a gas velocity of 1m/s, but at a voltage of 0.8V, the most uniform temperature distribution was achieved at a hydrogen mole fraction of 0.83, and the maximum temperature difference was 6.23K; the working condition of the most uniform temperature distribution is obtained when the hydrogen mole fraction is 0.85 under the voltage of 0.9V, and the maximum temperature difference is 31.16K. FIGS. 6 and 7 show that the maximum current densities obtained at a velocity of 1m/s and a hydrogen mole fraction of 0.85 were 2619.4A/m, respectively2And 1368.7A/m2。
To illustrate the advantages of the improved connectors of the present invention, the performance and temperature profile of SOFC units thermally managed with excess air from the cell cathode using currently available connectors (configuration shown in fig. 1) were separately modeled and compared to the case of using the improved connectors of the present invention. By integrating the battery performance and the temperature distribution condition, the inlet working condition adopts the working condition when the current density is maximum: the gas velocity was 1m/s, and the hydrogen mole fraction was 0.85 (ammonia gas 0.1, remaining 0.5 from N)2And H2O composition). The other working condition parameters are the same as those when the traditional connecting piece is used (the work of the two is the same)The voltage was 0.8V and the inlet gas temperature was 923K).
The results are shown in FIGS. 8 and 9: when the current commonly used connecting piece is adopted and the excess air (5 times of air quantity, the speed is 5m/s) of the cathode of the battery is used for carrying out heat management, the maximum temperature difference of the battery along the length direction is 26.7K, and the output current density is 2310A/m2(ii) a When the improved connecting piece is adopted, the maximum temperature difference of the battery along the length direction is 15K, and the output current density is 2619.4A/m2Compared with an air cooling method, the maximum temperature difference in the battery is reduced by 3.98K, and the output current density is improved by 10.94%.
The results prove that the improved connecting piece not only can meet the three main functions of the conventional connecting piece (connecting the anode and the cathode of the adjacent single cell, conducting electrons, providing a flow channel for reactants and products), but also can carry out thermal management on the SOFC cell stack, effectively improve the nonuniformity of temperature distribution in the cell stack, reduce the maximum temperature difference in the cell stack and improve the output performance of the cell stack.