Performance of an anode-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) under pressurized conditions

An anode-supported tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a 15-μm thick YSZ electrolyte and an active area of 100 cm2 was successfully fabricated by co-firing process, and the cell performance was measured under both atmospheric and pressurized conditions. The experimental results showed that the cell performance was significantly improved under the pressurized condition. When the pressure was increased from 1 to 6 atm, the maximum power density increased from 135.0 to 159.0 mW cm−2 at 650 °C, and from 266.7 to 306.0 mW cm−2 at 800 °C. The maximum power density at 800 °C and 4 atm was decreased from 334.8 to 273.9 mW cm−2 when increasing the fuel utilization from 10% to 90%. Under the test condition of 70% fuel utilization, 800 °C and 4 atm, the cell could run stably at 0.7 V and 350 mA cm−2 for 50 h, almost without any performance loss.