Progress in Flow Field Design and Optimization of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFCs) are energy conversion devices, which have various advantages, such as wide fuel applicability, high energy conversion efficiency and easy utilization of waste heat. However, SOFCs still have problems for commercialization, such as low stability and short working life. Due to the interaction of flow field, temperature field and electric field, the non-uniform flow field can easily lead to local temperature gradient and thermal stress in single cells, which causes irreversible damage to the SOFCs stack. Optimizing the uniformity of the flow field is a key to improve the stability and life of SOFCs. This paper summarizes the flow field design and optimization of planar SOFCs stacks.