Experimental Study Of The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell

Solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is an all solid-state energy conversion device. Current solid oxide fuel cells usually use ceramic materials as their construction materials and operate at high temperatures (600 - 1000C) . Because of its high efficiency, environmental friendly, fuel adaptability and long term stability, the research and development of SOFC have been emphasized in a large number of countries.In this thesis, firstly, the outlines and trend of the research and development in the field of SOFC both abroad and at home were reviewed. Secondly, the theory of SOFC was simply analyzed. Thirdly, a flat-plate SOFC of Ni-YSZ-LSM was manufactured, an experiment system was fabricated to measure its performance. In the fuel cell H2 was used as the fuel and O2 was used as the oxidant gas. The open-circuit voltage was measured at different temperatures ranged form 400C to 1000C and at different flow rates of fuel gas. At the same time, the voltage-current characteristics and power-current characteristics of the SOFC with various thickness of solid electrolyte were evaluated. Finally, efficiency of cell was calculated.The results showed that the open-circuit voltage of the cell increased obviously with temperature about 500C, but the change of the open-circuit voltage was very small. The power output of the cell went up obviously with temperature, and the power output of the cell that thickness of solid electrolyte was 1 mm was the two third of the cell that thickness was 0.5mm.