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Lattice Boltzmann simulation study of anode degradation in solid oxide fuel cells during the initial aging process

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Abstract

For present solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), rapid performance degradation is observed in the initial aging process, and the discussion of the degradation mechanism necessitates quantitative analysis. Herein, focused ion beam-scanning electron microscopy was employed to characterize and reconstruct the ceramic microstructures of SOFC anodes. The lattice Boltzmann method (LBM) simulation of multiphysical and electrochemical processes in the reconstructed models was performed. Two samples collected from industrial-size cells were characterized, including a reduced reference cell and a cell with an initial aging process. Statistical parameters of the reconstructed microstructures revealed a significant decrease in the active triple-phase boundary and Ni connectivity in the aged cell compared with the reference cell. The LBM simulation revealed that activity degradation is dominant compared with microstructural degradation during the initial aging process, and the electrochemical reactions spread to the support layer in the aged cell. The microstructural and activity degradations are attributed to Ni migration and coarsening.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by the National Key R&D Program of China (No. 2018YFB1502201) and the Guangdong Basic and Applied Basic Research Foundation, China (No. 2020A1515010551). The authors acknowledge Dr. Yu Wang from the Shanghai Institute of Applied Physics for the FIB-SEM test. The numerical calculations in this paper have been done on the supercomputing system in the Supercomputing Center of University of Science and Technology of China.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Hydrogen Energy Industrial Technology Innovation Center, China Nuclear Power Technology Research Institute, Shenzhen, 518031, China

    Shixue Liu, Zhijing Liu, Shuxing Zhang & Hao Wu

  2. Shenzhen Engineering Research Center for Hydrogen Safety, Shenzhen, 518031, China

    Shixue Liu, Zhijing Liu, Shuxing Zhang & Hao Wu

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  1. Shixue Liu
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  2. Zhijing Liu
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Correspondence to Shixue Liu.

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Liu, S., Liu, Z., Zhang, S. et al. Lattice Boltzmann simulation study of anode degradation in solid oxide fuel cells during the initial aging process. Int J Miner Metall Mater 31, 405–411 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-023-2692-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12613-023-2692-8

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