HIT-SIM(High Temperature-Simulation)

Environmental studies of institutions with global reputation like the United Nations Organization stress the responsibility of politics and science to face the problems of climate change. High efficient energy conversion systems like fuel cells can substantially contribute to solve these problems. For fuel cells to have any market value in the future and to be truly environmentally friendly, they must operate as efficiently as possible. One of the critical problems for scaling single cells up into larger reactors is the induced effects of gas supply, fluid dynamics, heat transfer and stresses which then affect each cells performance within a multi-cell reactor. Computational Fluid Dynamic software (CFD) offers a unique tool to possibly explore in far greater intensity and wider scale the nature and effects of the species depletion and gradients and the temperature profiles and flow regimes. The micro-tubular fuel cell offers a convenient and adequate device to validate these fundamentally new simulations with measurements for reactant gas specie concentrations. These SOFCs are relatively low cost, small sized and their characteristics and performance can easily be measured with the use of I/V curves and impedance spectroscopy for any possible set of reasonable operational boundary conditions. To reach conclusions about the afore mentioned unknowns, it would be possible to find measurements for these phenomena with the further development of a worlds first, small scale, high temperature wind tunnel for a wide variety of flow rates which has already been developed on campus in Wels. This would mean that new data would be available to exploit the potential of this SOFC technology by giving it a set of optimised parameters which could be developed into a product, either with future research or with the aid of industrial partners. To reach afore mentioned goals the necessary co-operation between the Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences (UAUAS), the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Dublin City University will lead to a deep scientific collaboration over many years through consultation and student exchanges. The rewards of this project will be the development of a PhD. position and Masters positions for workers and students from the UAUAS in Wels. The results will not only be seen in the fuel cell field, but the apparatus built to perform these experiments and the simulation models created will require novel solutions which will be new and of great relevance to their respective fields. It is intended that several papers per year in journals of different themes, will be published so that the results can be peer reviewed.

Environmental studies of institutions with global reputation like the United Nations Organization stress the responsibility of politics and science to face the problems of climate change. High efficient energy conversion systems like fuel cells can substantially contribute to solve these problems. For fuel cells to have any market value in the future and to be truly environmentally friendly, they must operate as efficiently as possible. Currently, in order to reach this target, computer simulations (Computational Fluid Dynamic software (CFD)) are often used. The programs available are quite good and already include a huge amount of models. However, the most accurate models must have important physical and chemical data about the system analysed. Often the required data is not publically available and must be measured in a lab. Additionally, in some cases known existing models have to be extended/improved in order to get results with improved accuracy. To know if a model can make accurate predictions one has to validate the simulation results with experiments. Then a validated model can be used in order to simulate many new situations that are variations of the validated one. Normally, in order to develop a technology, this process, which includes a simulation phase, is cheaper and faster than analysing the technology via physical experimentation. The aim of this project was to create knowledge about modelling and the behaviour of so called micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology. This fuel cell type has the potential to be a highly efficient and cheap electricity supply device without the need of requiring pure hydrogen. Especially for portable and mobile applications this technology seems to be quite promising. These cells work at about 600 to 800 C and the simulation of them is quite difficult, as there is an interaction of chemistry, electricity and fluid dynamics. To validate these complex simulation predictions a unique wind tunnel system was designed. Basic CFD simulation was used in order to design the experimental apparatus, which was built in this project. With this experimental apparatus it was possible to directly look at the cells during operation, even when they were glowing red hot. To get new measurement data different technologies like thermography and an electrochemical measurement technique impedance spectroscopy were combined. Based on these measurement recordings, the predictions made by the CFD software and electrochemical models were scrutinised and adapted. . To reach afore mentioned goals the project was undertaken with international co-operation between the Upper Austrian University of Applied Sciences, the University of Rome Tor Vergata and Dublin City University. The quality of this project resulted in 14 peer-reviewed publications and a PhD thesis.