Chemical Engineering Science, Vol.154, 100-107, 2016
Mechanistic Studies of Liquid Metal Anode SOFCs II: Development of a Coulometric Titration Technique to Aid Reactor Design
Improved understanding of the operation of liquid metal anode solid oxide fuel cells (LMA-SOFCs) is required to progress this promising energy conversion technology. In order to facilitate analysis and interpretation, initial studies have been carried out with a simple system in which hydrogen is used as the fuel and the liquid metal electrode is operated in a potential region where it effectively behaves as an 'inert' solvent for dissolved gases. A model for the processes taking place in a liquid tin anode (LTA) supplied with hydrogen has previously been reported which identified a key parameter, the Dynamic Oxygen Utilisation Coefficient, (z) over bar, important for understanding the operation and design of these systems. This parameter serves a similar role to the Damkohler number, widely applied in chemical reaction engineering to relate the chemical reaction rate to the transport phenomena rate. This paper describes the development of a method, named Anodic Injection Coulometry (AIC), to determine (z) over bar, together with an example of its application. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.