Fabrication and operating characteristics of a flat tubular segmented-in-series solid oxide fuel cell unit bundle

A unit bundle of a flat tubular segmented-in-series (SIS)-solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) for intermediate temperature (650-800 degrees C) operation was fabricated and operated in this study. We fabricated flat tubular ceramic supports through an extrusion process and analyzed the basic properties of the flat tubular ceramic support: the visible microstructure, porosity, mechanical strength, and pore size distribution. After that, we manufactured a flat tubular SIS-SOFC single cell using screen printing and a vacuum slurry dip-coating method for the electrode/interconnect and electrolyte. In addition, to make a unit bundle for a flat tubular SIS-SOFC, five SIS-SOFC single cells with an effective electrode area of 0.8 cm(2) were coated onto the surface of the prepared ceramic support and were connected in series using an Ag glass interconnect between each single SIS-SOFC cell. The performance of the 5-cell unit bundle for a flat tubular SIS-SOFC in 3% humidified H-2 and air at 800 degrees C had a maximum power of 2.5 W. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.