LAUSR

Abstract The temperature distribution of an operating planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is experimentally investigated under direct internal reforming conditions. An in situ measurement is conducted using a cell holder and an infrared (IR) camera. The effects of the gas flow configuration, exothermic power generation reaction, and endothermic steam–methane reforming reaction are examined at a furnace temperature of 770 °C. The fuel flow and airflow are set to a coflow or counterflow configuration. The heat generation and absorption by the reactions are varied by tuning the average current density and the concentration of methane in the supplied fuel. The maximum value of the local temperature gradient along the cell tends to increase with increasing internal reforming ratio, regardless of the gas flow configuration. From the view point of a small temperature gradient, the counterflow configuration clearly shows better characteristics than that of the coflow, regardless of the internal reforming ratio.