Effects of fabrication parameters on the performance of solid oxide electrolyzer cell

•Cell fabrication parameters on the performance of solid oxide electrolyzer.•Effects of sintering temperatures and electrode compositions are investigated.•Commercial-size cell with 81 cm2 active area is successfully fabricated.•The final cell provides 154 Sccm H2 production rate at 800 °C and 1.5 V.

The microstructure has a great impact on the performance of solid oxide fuel/electrolyzer cells while the cell fabrication parameters mainly determine the microstructure of the cell components. In this study, a number of five-layered cells with 16 cm2 active area are fabricated and the effects of several cell fabrication parameters including sintering temperature and electrode composition on the hydrogen production performance are investigated. The experimental results showed that the optimum sintering temperature of the electrolyte, cathode and anode should be 1400 °C, 1250 °C and 1075 °C, respectively, while the solid weight ratio of both NiO-ScSZ cathode and LSM-ScSZ anode functional layer should be 1:1. The optimized cell produces 38 Sccm H2 at an operation temperature of 800 °C and 1.5 V. Then, the cell size is increased to a commercial size of 81 cm2 active area. The final cell exhibits an acceptable H2 production of 154 Sccm H2 at 800 °C and 1.5 V. The relatively lower performance of the commercial-size cell is attributed to the inadequate current distribution/collection due to the increased surface area.