The Institute of Power Engineering Activity in the Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology

Electrolyte supported cells (ESC) were manufactured using tape casting and screen printing technology and the corresponding anode supported cells (ASC) manufacturing is currently under development. In the present study, “symmetrical” cathode-electrolyte-cathode solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) single cells were also fabricated and tested using electrochemical impedance spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy. The functional and contact layer properties were characterized by means of microscopic and electrochemical methods. Influence of thickness and grain size of layers on the cell performance was systematically investigated. the design of cell, stack and system was helped by computational fluid dynamics and system modeling. The gas flow distribution in the SOFC stack was systematically investigated. The ESC-SOFC cells developed at the Institute of Power Engineering achieved good performance as a result of improvements in ceramic processing. The present activities concentrate on ASC-SOFC cell development, cell testing and cell/stack/system design.