Recent progress in tubular solid oxide fuel cell technology

The tubular design of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) and the materials used therein have been validated by successful, continuous electrical testing over 69,000 h of early technology cells built on a calcia-stabilized zirconia porous support tube (PST). In the latest technology cells, the PST has been eliminated and replaced by a doped lanthanum manganite air electrode tube. These air electrode supported (AES) cells have shown a power density increase of about 33% with a significantly improved performance stability over the previously used PST type cells. These cells have also demonstrated the ability to thermally cycle over 100 times without any mechanical damage or performance loss. In addition, recent changes in processes used to fabricate these cells have resulted in significant cost reduction. This paper reviews the fabrication and performance of the state-of-the-art AES tubular cells. It also describes the materials and processing studies that are underway to further reduce the cell cost, and summarizes the recently built power generation systems that employed state-of-the-art AES cells.