Among the high temperature fuel cell technologies, tubular Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) stacks with internal reforming have emerged as one of the most mature technology, with a serious potential for a future commercialization and extremely high performances predicted both with simple fuel cell plants and with integrated gas turbine-fuel cell systems. In this paper a simulation of the operating conditions of a tubular SOFC stack, with natural gas feeding, internal reforming of hydrocarbons and internal air preheating is proposed. The model is calibrated on the available data for a recently demonstrated tubular SOFC prototype plant, and a first and second-law thermodynamic analysis of the stack performances is then carried out. The discussion is completed by a parametric analysis of the stack working conditions, as a function of the fuel utilization factor.
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