Steam Share between Exhausted Air and Exhausted Fuel from Phosphoric Acid Fuel Cells

Abstract

Experimental studies and analytic theories are presented on a steam share between exhausted air and exhausted fuel from phosphoric acid fuel cells.
The steam share depends on a fiow rate of air and fuel. The share characteristics can be explained by a steam transport mechanism in which steam carried with air and fuel are combined with steam permeated through an electrolyte layer.
The mechanism is applied to the published analytic theory for fuel cell performance. The revised theory can calculate steam share between air and fuel at each part of a cell. The calculated steam share between exhausted air and exhausted fuel at typical operating conditions of a fuel cell plant is presented.
A simplified method for calculating steam share is developed and shown to give almost the same results with the detailed theory for fuel cell performance.