Electrochemical performance and thermal cyclicability of industrial-sized anode supported planar solid oxide fuel cells

Abstract

Industrial-sized planar anode-supported SOFC cells with a cell dimension of 15 × 15 × 0.1 cm and an active area of 13 × 13 cm2 are fabricated through a processing route of tape casting-screen printing-cofiring. Electrochemical performance and thermal cyclicability of the cell are evaluated in a single cell stack at 750 °C with H2 as the fuel and air as the oxidant. With a gas flow rate of 3 L min−1, the initial open circuit voltage (OCV) is 1164 mV, and the stack demonstrates a power density of 380 mW cm−2 at 473 mA cm−2 with an extrapolated maximum power output of 100 W. After three thermal cycles, the reduction of the stack output voltage is around 5%, and the OCV is maintained at a level above 1145 mV. Based on the obtained results, issues related to stack performance, such as cell quality, contact resistance and sealing, are discussed.