Modelo termodinâmico de uma pilha a combustível de óxido sólido operada com etanol para geração distribuída

Abstract

The solid oxide fuel cells are devices that convert chemical energy into electrical energy through the electrochemical reaction between a fuel and an oxidant with a low poluent emission and noise. These electrochemical devices are more efficient than conventional combustion engines that are limited by the Carnot cycle. To achieve adequate electrical power, SOFC's are formed by stacking unit cells consisting of two porous ceramic electrodes and one dense ceramic electrolyte and one ionic conductor. The SOFC and peripherals arrangement are defined by architectures that are in researchs in the development of new energy sources. Studies on energy reuse and efficiency increase have great interest in the scientific community and the combined heat and power energy systems (CHP) have emerged as a form to reuse the system energy increasing the efficiency. Peripherals such as heat exchangers, turbines, reformers and compressors need a source of energy to operate. The optimized use of energy, associated with the output gases of the SOFC, is presented as a good solution. In this work, a develop and validate a thermodynamic model of an solid oxide fuel cell operated with etanol were propose using MATLAB as progamming language. A bibliograhic research provided operational data and equations that were used in previous studies of the architectures. The results show satisfactory results for a system with 250 cells to electrical energy supply for distributed generation with a high rate of thermal efficiency with 10.34 kW of power in alternating current and 45.59% of electrical efficiency and 87.53% of thermal efficiency.