Mathematical Sciences: Modeling and Analysis for Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells

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DMS-9501022 Fehrlbach Molten carbonate fuel cells are promising as clean and efficient sources of electricity---they have no moving parts, make no noise and produce no fumes. But the models used to describe them are deficient in certain aspects. The aim of this research is to develop and study improved mathematical models for electrochemical fuel cells, particularly molten carbonate fuel cells. The proposed work begins with the formulation of phenomenological models in terms of electrochemical potentials derived thermodynamically from the various reaction mechanisms on the microscale (the scale of the electrode pore structure). These microscale potential models will be analyzed numerically and analytically to determine what results can be achieved on this small scale. The equations will also be used to derive consistent models in terms of species concentration. Both types of models will be averaged to obtain macroscale models which can be fit to experimental data. A variety of averaging techniques will be considered in formulating three- phase homogenized models to obtain a broad prospective on the relationship between the microscale and the macroscale. An important part of the work will be addressing questions of interest to the fuel cell research community and comparing the models to experimental results.