Proton conducting reversible SOFC integrated in a solar thermal power generation system

This paper proposes a novel solar thermal power generation system that employs a proton conducting reversible solid oxide fuel cell (RSOFC-H) and a hybrid photovoltaic thermal module. The photovoltaic thermal module supplies electrical power to the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) while operating in electrolysis mode. The stored fuel (Hydrogen), generated by electrolysis mode is utilised to generate power in fuel cell mode. Electrochemical modelling and analysis of RSOFC-H is presented in this paper. The working condition of the system is: as a solid oxide steam electrolyser (SOSE) mode during the day time and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) mode during night time. Performance analysis of RSOFC-H has been conducted under varying operating and design parameters, such as current density and cell temperature. In SOSE mode of operation, efficiency has been observed to be almost constant with the variation of current density and it is obtained to be 78.31%. During SOFC mode of operation, maximum efficiency obtained is to be 64.62% at cell temperature of 873K and current density of 500A/m².