Abstract
In this paper, we describe the power generation performance of a tubular solid oxide fuel cell. In the experimental equipment, the single cell was put vertically inside an electric furnace. Hydrogen, nitrogen and steam mixture is supplied to the anode and air is supplied to the cathode, respectively. We measured the current and the terminal voltage through the operation of the electronic load unit. As a result, we obtained the current-voltage (I-V) characteristics with some different fuel utilization and temperature conditions. The fuel utilization is defined as the mole ratio of hydrogen consumption to hydrogen supply. It is clarified that the constant fuel utilization operation is better than the fixed fuel flow rate operation because of the higher power generation efficiency. In addition, we show the effects of operating temperature and the fuel utilization on the static characteristics of the single cell.
