High performance tubular solid oxide fuel cells with BSCF cathode

Compared with planar SOFCs, tubular SOFCs have the advantages of facile sealing and easy scale up. In this study, a tubular anode-supported thin-film YSZ electrolyte SOFC was successfully fabricated by extrusion of the anode substrate in combination with wet powder spraying of the electrolyte layer. The fuel cell performance was tested by applying either hydrogen or methane as the fuel and ambient air as the cathode atmosphere. Peak power densities of 432 and 145 mW cm−2 were achieved respectively at 800 and 600 °C for a cell with conventional LSM and silver wire as the cathode and the current collector. The performance was further improved by adopting BSCF cathode with an SDC buffer layer. EIS demonstrated the large electrode polarization resistance is the main source of cell resistance, while the contact resistance is also not negligible. The performance of the cell directly operating on methane fuel was also investigated. A special operation mode by alternatively operating on methane and hydrogen fuels was adopted, which can effectively increase the cell operational stability.