Design and Fabrication of an Easily Assembled Anode Supported Microtubular SOFC Stack

Abstract

Microtubular solid oxide fuel cells have shown many advantages that make them suitable for mobile and portable applications. In this study, a microtubular SOFC stack consisting of 8 cells was designed and fabricated using a metallic current collector and interconnect, enabling a pluggable modular design pattern. To avoid the difficulty of high-temperature sealing, the cold sealing method was adopted, where the temperature at the sealing position was under 130°C when the stack was operated at 700°C. The open circuit voltage (OCV) reached over 4 V while the power output reached over 20 W with a 2 (in series)×4 (in parallel) array. The stack module can be further connected in series or in parallel to satisfy larger power requirements.