Fabrication and Operation of Tubular Segmented-In-Series (SIS) Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC)

A tubular segmented-in-series (SIS) solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) sub module for intermediate temperature (700–800 °C) operation was fabricated and operated in this study. For this purpose, we fabricated porous ceramic supports of 3 YSZ through an extrusion process and analyzed the basic properties of the ceramic support, such as visible microstructure, porosity, and mechanical strength, respectively. After that, we fabricated a tubular SIS SOFC single cell by using dip coating and vacuum slurry coating method in the case of electrode and electrolyte, and obtained at 800 °C a performance of about 400 mW cm–2. To make a sub module for tubular SIS SOFC, ten tubular SIS SOFC single cells with an effective electrode area of 1.1 cm2 were coated onto the surface of the prepared ceramic support and were connected in series by using Ag + glass interconnect between each single cell. The ten-cell sub module of tubular SIS SOFC showed in 3% humidified H2 and air at 800 °C a maximum power of ca. 390 mW cm–2.