Thermal management of high temperature solid oxide electrolyser cell/fuel cell systems

High temperature solid oxide cells, operated alternately in electrolyser or fuel cell mode, represent an appealing approach for efficient electricity storage via hydrogen production/consumption. This paper analyses the thermal balance of a solid oxide electrolyser cell/fuel cell to enable highly transient operation at high temperatures and high storage efficiencies. Furthermore, the paper proposes a thermal balancing, heat supply and removal mechanism via high temperature heat pipes integrated into the solid oxide cell stacks. A quasi-2D thermo-electrochemical model of the solid oxide cell system provides numerical results in order to evaluate the benefits of such heat pipe-stack couplings. (C) 2012 Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Grove Steering Committee. Open access under CC BY-NC-ND license.