A new model for the analysis of operating conditions of micro-cogenerative SOFC units

High Temperature Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (HT-SOFCs) represent a very promising technology for efficient energy conversion, and offer the possibility of distributed micro-cogeneration. Efficient modelling of actual SOFC operating conditions, after proper validation, is very important for the control and management of future commercial units, and very useful for the design of experiments in prototype systems, like the one considered in this work. The paper presents a new zero dimensional (OD) model for the simulation of a SOFCs based micro-cogenerative power system for residential use, fed by natural gas. The novelty of the proposed model consists in the ability to accurately reproduce the logic of the on-board control system. The model is validated against the data collected during an experimental campaign recently conducted by the authors on a field unit. The validated model is used to investigate the actual performance of the generator under different operating conditions, and to design new experiments. The results shown in this paper highlight the importance of the thermal control strategy on the actual performance of the cogenerative power system. Copyright (C) 2012, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.