What are the key factors in designing a highly efficient and durable system for ammonia-fueled SOFCs?

To effectively develop a technology, it is crucial to understand its various aspects and levels to ensure its reliability and efficiency. DTU applied a previously developed multiscale, multiphysics approach to analyze ammonia-fueled SOFCs at the cell, stack, and system levels. Various system configurations were compared, evaluating the effects of ammonia pre-cracking and anode off-gas recirculation on system efficiency and nitriding degradation.

You can check more results in the research paper entitled “Efficient and durable system design for ammonia-fueled solid oxide fuel cells using multiscale multiphysics modeling approach” published in Fuel, 392, 134837(2025)

The article can be downloaded form the “Result” webpage: https://amon-project.eu/results/

Abstract:

It is crucial to consider all of the scales and underlying physics to design a durable and efficient ammonia-fueled SOFC system. Therefore, a novel multiscale multiphysics modeling approach is used in this study as a design tool to investigate various features of ammonia-fueled SOFC systems, stacks, and cells including performance and nitriding degradation. Different system configurations are designed and influence of anode off-gas recirculation (AOR) and ammonia pre-cracking is investigated. Results indicate the impact of the design changes on efficiency and nitriding degradation. Air flow rate and inlet temperature should be controlled for different configurations to keep the temperature of cells in the stacks inside a desired range. Implementing the AOR showed a considerable improvement in efficiency as for 0 %, 50 %, 70 %, and 90 % AOR rates, system efficiencies are around 53 %, 63 %, 70 %, and 75 %, respectively. To avoid nitriding at the given operating conditions, around 90 % external pre-cracking is required. A system with 90 % of pre-cracking and 90 % AOR is selected as the most efficient and durable system configuration, for the technology at hand. Pressure drops in the system components, particularly on the air side, should be minimized to achieve high efficiency in cases with high ammonia pre-cracking ratios.

Citation: 

Arash Nemati, Hossein Nami, Javid Beyrami, Rafael Nogueira Nakashima, Henrik Lund Frandsen,
Efficient and durable system design for ammonia-fueled solid oxide fuel cells using multiscale multiphysics modeling approach, Fuel, Volume 392, 2025, 134837, ISSN 0016-2361,
DOI: 10.1016/j.fuel.2025.134837