A solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) unit cell is constructed by coating V-added La 0.8Sr 0.2MnO 3–Ce 0.9Gd 0.1O 2 as the cathode onto a disk of anode-supported bilayers of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) and Ni-YSZ. Various compositions of lean-burn engine exhaust components of O 2, H 2O, CO 2 and NO were tested over the cathode of SOFC unit cell operating at 700–800 °C. NO can be completely converted to N 2. All the exhaust components have beneficial effect on NO conversion. Increasing O 2 content from 2 to 10% increases NO conversion from 18% to about 70%; this enables us to increase the O 2 content by adding air in the exhaust to increase the NO conversion. Increasing NO concentration increases NO conversion. Adding H 2O, increasing CO 2 content and an increase of the generated voltage all increase NO conversion, although only slightly. These are beneficial for the application of SOFCs to NO removal from lean-burn engine exhaust.