A Novel Adaptive Neural Network-Based Thermoelectric Parameter Prediction Method for Enhancing Solid Oxide Fuel Cell System Efficiency

Efficiency prediction plays a crucial role in the ongoing development of electrochemical energy technology. Our industries heavily depend on a reliable energy supply for power and electricity, and solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) systems stand out as renewable devices with immense potential. SOFCs, as one of the various types of fuel cells, are renowned for their capability of combined heat and power generation. They can achieve an efficiency of up to 90% in operation. Furthermore, due to the fact that water is the byproduct of their electricity generation process, they are extremely environmentally friendly, contributing significantly to humanity's sustainable development. With the advancement of renewable energy technologies and the increasing emphasis on sustainable development requirements, predicting and optimizing the efficiency of SOFC systems is gaining importance. This study leverages data collected from an SOFC system and applies an improved neural network structure, specifically the dendritic network (DN) architecture, to forecast thermoelectric efficiency. The key advantage of this method lies in the adaptive neural network algorithm based on the dendritic network structure without manually setting hidden nodes. Moreover, the predicted model of thermoelectric efficiency is validated using 682 and 1099 h of operational data from the SOFC system, and the results are compared against a conventional machine learning method. After comparison, it is found that when the novel method with adaptive characteristics proposed was used for SOFC system efficiency prediction, the MAE and RMSE values were both lower than 0.014; the result is significantly better than from other traditional methods. Additionally, this study demonstrated its effectiveness in predicting the thermoelectric efficiency of SOFC systems through secondary experiments. This study offers guidance on enhancing SOFC systems thermoelectric efficiency. Therefore, this study provides a foundation for the future industrialization of fuel cell systems.