Electrochemical Effectiveness Factors for Butler-Volmer Reaction Kinetics in Active Electrode Layers of Solid Oxide Fuel Cells

In this study, a numerical approach is adopted to investigate the effectiveness factors for distributed electrochemical reactions in thin active reaction layers of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), taking into account the Butler-Volmer reaction kinetics. The mathematical equations for the electrochemical reaction and charge conduction process were formulated by assuming that the active reaction layer has a small thickness, homogeneous microstructure, and high effective electronic conductivity. The effectiveness factor is defined as the ratio of the actual reaction rate (or equivalently, current generation rate) in the active reaction layer to the nominal reaction rate. From extensive numerical calculations, the effectiveness factors were obtained for various charge transfer coefficients of 0.3-0.8. These effectiveness data were then fitted to simple correlation equations, and the resulting correlation coefficients are presented along with estimated magnitude of error.