Mass transfer enhancement of a spiral-like interconnector for planar solid oxide fuel cells

In order to mitigate the fuel shortage in porous electrode of planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC), this work presents a novel spiral-like SOFC interconnector which could achieve a tight gas sealing and sufficient electrical contact between the interconnector and electrode or gas supply line. A naphthalene sublimation mass transfer experiment at room temperature is applied to verify the superiority of the new structure. A 3-D model is set up by COMSOL 3.5A and the cell is operated with the mixture of H₂ and H₂O as fuel at 1023 K. The experimental results and simulation results show that this new structure could improve the mass transfer performance of SOFC greatly. Comparing with traditional direct channel interconnector, this new design could not only improve the gas velocity in porous electrode which parallel to the triple phase boundary (TPB), but also enhance the gas velocity perpendicular to it. The H₂ molar fraction in porous anode with this spiral-like interconnector is almost two orders of magnitude higher than that with direct channel interconnector both at room temperature and high temperature. These improvements would be helpful to increase the fuel availability and enhance the electrical performance of SOFCs.