## 2 Materials and Methods  
For the efficient and standard-compliant installation of such a system, it is essential to select the right components to minimize the power loss throughout the total pipeline, from the natural gas flow rate up to the vehicle's charging port. Over the last decade in Europe, the prevailing standards, which deal with the EV charging infrastructure, stem from the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) [26; 27]. Nowadays, the most prevalent IEC standards are IEC62196 and IEC61851. These relate to the type of power source (DC or AC single/three phase), the operational voltage of the whole system, the maximum current, and the available charging ports and connections. Each one can be used under AC-modes, three available for IEC62196 and two for IEC61851, and DC-mode characterized as fast charge operation by using a power supply path up to 600 V under maximum current load of 400 A and 200-450 V under 80 A for IEC62196 and IEC61851, accordingly [26; 28]. More precisely, the innovative simulated electric power station will consist of an innovative IT-SOFC-stack, characterized by 5 kW capacity and operational temperature of 400-700 \({}^{\circ}\)C, along with an internal reforming stage to generate the necessary electric power. A heat exchanger unit is also used to raise the inlet ingredients' temperature to the desired operating level of an IT-SOFC while these devices will be accompanied by a high voltage DC-supercharger in order to charge the EV. The above power plant will be supported by a burner unit that will supply the excess thermal energy to reach the desired operating temperatures, as it is presented in Figure 1.  
Natural gas will be considered as the unique provided power source for the presented innovative charging station. To calculate the mass and energy balances, we assumed that the system is in steady-state conditions, being fed by a certain amount of 0.64 kg CH\({}_{4}\), 10.11 kg air, and 1.8 kg H\({}_{2}\)O. These values are the optimal ones that may assure approximately 18000 KJ (i.e., approx. 5 kWh) at the output, which is the normal demand for a typical EV charger. Also, at the entrance of our apparatus, we introduce air and water, needed for the reactions occurring in the reform  
Figure 1: Flow chart of the innovative Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) based Electric Vehicles (EV)’s charge station. methane is the main component of natural gas at a level of 91.2%. Initially, the moles of the substances (namely CH\({}_{4}\), CO\({}_{2}\), N\({}_{2}\), O\({}_{2}\), and H\({}_{2}\)O) involved in the reactions that take place in the reformer and the cell, were calculated. Then, mass balances were produced and solved in a linear system. To control the reforming process, we introduced the extend-of-reforming, \(\varepsilon\); thus, the mass balances for each device as well as for the whole apparatus can be calculated easily. Regarding the relative energy balances, we made use of enthalpy (\(\Delta H\)) of each reaction we considered, in accordance with known thermodynamic formulas for the heat transport and specific heat capacity involved [29; 30]. In order to simulate and optimize the IT-SOFC-based system, the energy aspect of the present research study was based on the previously presented simulation tool THERMAS [29; 30]. This model incorporates extensively the energy balances over each simulated device and can be described through the following expression [29; 30]:  
\[\left\{\sum_{i}\left[(\Delta H_{f}^{0})_{i}+\int_{T_{0}}^{T_{int}}m_{i}( \widetilde{C}_{P})_{i}dT\right]+Q+\sum_{r}\left|\Delta H\right|_{ex}\right\}_{in} \tag{1}\] \[=\left\{\sum_{i}\left[(\Delta H_{f}^{0})_{i}+\int_{T_{0}}^{T_{ out}}m_{i}(\widetilde{C}_{P})_{i}dT\right]+Q+\sum_{r}\Delta H_{end}\right\}_{out}\]  
where \(\Delta H_{f}^{0}\) is the enthalpy of formation in the reference state, and \(\widetilde{C}_{P}\) is the mean molar specific heat capacity. Symbol \(\Delta H\) refers to the enthalpy changes of the exothermic or endothermic reactions according to each process.