Study of species, temperature distributions and the solid oxide fuel cells performance in a 2-D model Hocine Mahcene a, *, Hocine Ben Moussa b , Hamza Bouguettaia a , Djamel Bechki a , Souad Babay a , Mohamed Salah Meftah c a Laboratory of Renewable Energy (LENREZA), P.O.Box 511, Ouargla University 30000 Algeria b De ´partement de me ´canique, Universite ´ de Batna, Algeria c Centre Universitaire, d’El-Oued 39000 Algeria article info Article history: Received 15 April 2010 Received in revised form 14 July 2010 Accepted 15 July 2010 Available online 17 August 2010 Keywords: Temperature distribution Solid oxide fuel cells Species distribution Efficiency abstract A two-dimensional mathematical model for a planar SOFC (solid oxide fuel cell) is con- structed. The distribution of the chemical species, the temperature and the performance (power) and the current density were calculated using a single-unit model with double channels of co-flow pattern. The finite volume method was employed for the calculation. The method was based on the fundamental conservation laws of continuity, momentum, energy and mass. The equations are implemented in FORTRAN language. The effects of several heat sources and flow rates on the calculated results were also investigated. The reference SOFC polarization curve has been calculated by imposing a uniform temperature of 800 K, a pressure equal to 1 atm; H 2 and O 2 molar fractions equal to 0.97 and 0.21 respectively. Results of temperature, chemical species distributions, performance and efficiency under several heat sources are shown and discussed. At a current density of about 23500 A/m 2 , the power densities under all sources and chemical sources reached their maximums of 12965 W/m 2 and 16209 W/m 2 (i.e. 25% lower) respectively. However the temperature increment in the anode is analyzed toward all sources and chemical reaction. The temperature maximum values for each heat source type reached 1005.81 K and 984.69 K respectively. Copyright ª 2010, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Hydrogen may well be the energy carrier of the future. In the world in particular a major change in the energy infrastruc- ture, a transition from fossil fuels to hydrogen, appears to be on the horizon. This change, which comes amid concerns of an increasing dependence on an uncertain supply of foreign oil, will be made possible by several key technologies that allow for the efficient production, storage, and usage of hydrogen [1]. One of these technologies is the fuel cell. The SOFC, like other fuel cells, is an electrochemical device for the conversion of chemical energy of a fuel into electricity and heat. Due to its great prospect for clean energy genera- tion, the computer simulation technique has been used to analyze effectively the process of energy conversion in the SOFC system. Some modelling of the SOFC during steady operation has been constructed to calculate temperature and current density distributions [2]. SOFCs with internal methane steam reforming (MSR) have been studied by several research groups [3,4]. Most of these studies focused on the effects of operating parameters on the SOFC perfor- mance, such as the steam to carbon ratio. While only very * Corresponding author. Tel.: þ213 662845195; fax: þ213 29712627. E-mail address: hmohcin@yahoo.fr (H. Mahcene). Available at www.sciencedirect.com journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/he international journal of hydrogen energy 36 (2011) 4244 e4252 0360-3199/$ e see front matter Copyright ª 2010, Hydrogen Energy Publications, LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijhydene.2010.07.075