A novel design and performance of cone-shaped tubular anode-supported segmented-in-series solid oxide fuel cell stack

A novel design of cone-shaped tubular segmented-in-series solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) stack is presented in this paper. The cone-shaped tubular anode substrates are fabricated by slip casting technique and the yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) electrolyte films are deposited onto the anode tubes by dip coating method. After sintering at 1400 degrees C for 4 h, a dense and crack-free YSZ film with a thickness of about 7 mu m is successfully obtained. The single cell, NiO-YSZ/YSZ (7 mu m)/LSM-YSZ, provides a maximum power density of 1.78 W cm(-2) at 800 degrees C, using moist hydrogen (75 ml min(-1)) as fuel and ambient air as oxidant. A two-cell-stack based on the above-mentioned cone-shaped tubular anode-supported SOFC is fabricated. Its typical operating characteristics are investigated, particularly with respect to the thermal cycling test. The results show that the two-cell-stack has good thermo-mechanical properties and that the developed segmented-in-series SOFC stack is highly promising for portable applications. (C) 2009 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.