MS Thesis Presentation - S. Narayanan

 MECHANICAL ENGINEERING SEMINAR SERIES 2008
MS Thesis Presentation
Monday, April 21, 2008 9:30 – 12:00 pm
2555 (D) Engineering Building(ME Conference Room)

 “STEADY-STATE AND TRANSIENT ANALYSIS OF A STEAM REFORMER BASED SOLID OXIDE FUEL CELL SYSTEM”
 
 
BySridharan NarayananAdvisor: Dr. Ranjan Mukherjee  
In this thesis we perform a model-based analysis of a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) system
with an integrated steam reformer and with methane as fuel. The objective of this study is to
analyze the steady-state and transient characteristics of this system for varying current 
demand. For the analysis, we develop a control-oriented model of the system that captures
the heat and mass transfer, chemical kinetics and electrochemical phenomena. We express
the dynamics of the reformer and the fuel cell in state-space form. By applying coordinate 
transformations to the state-space model, we derive analytical expressions of steady-state
conditions and transient behaviors of two critical performance variables, namely utilization 
and steam-to-carbon balance. Using these results, we solve a constrained fuel optimization
problem in steady-state using linear programming. Our analysis is supported by simulations. 
The results presented in this thesis can be applied in predicting transient response and will
be useful in control development for SOFC systems.
 
Persons with disabilities please contact Aida Montalvo montalai@egr.msu.edu
to request accommodations.