Heat Balance in a Planar Solid Oxide Iron-Air Redox Battery: A Computational Analysis

© The Author(s) 2015. In the present computational study, a thermal flow analysis is performed on a large-scale (10 × 10 cm) planar Solid Oxide Iron-Air Redox Battery (SOIARB) operated at 800°C. The results explicitly indicate that the heat generated during the discharge cycle is more than what is needed for the charge cycle. Use of air as a working fluid to regulate the heat flow and heat balance within the battery is a practical engineering solution to maintain the desirable operating temperature and high energy efficiency for the battery system. Air utilization and inlet temperature are the two most important parameters that can be adjusted to regulate the heat flow between cycles. The analysis also shows that operating at a higher current density, around 1500 A/m \textless sup \textgreater 2 \textless /sup \textgreater , the battery becomes thermally self-sustainable, but at the expense of lowered electrical cycle efficiency.