A thermally self-sustaining miniature solid oxide fuel cell

A thermally self-sustaining miniature power generation device was developed utilizing a single-chamber solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) placed in a controlled thermal environment provided by a spiral counterflow Swiss roll heat exchanger and combustor. Single chamber SOFC with two different cathode materials were tested with propane-air mixtures over Re = 50-170 and C₃H₈/O₂ ratios of 1.97:1-2.36:1. Tests were performed by placing the fuel cells immediately upstream of the center of the Swiss roll and generating heat via the combustion of the fuel cell effluent at the center of the burner. Peak power densities of ≤ 370 mw/sq cm were recorded and the performance of both types of SOFC tested in the Swiss roll was similar to that obtained in a tube furnace with electric resistance heating. Single-chamber SOFC integrated with heat recirculating combustors might be a viable approach for small-scale power generation devices. This is an abstract of a paper presented at the 30th International Symposium on Combustion (Chicago, IL 7/25-30/2004).