Electrochemical Behavior of Metal-Supported SOFCs Under High Fuel Utilization and Their Durability

The aim of this project was to study whether the oxidation resistance of cells is affected while working under high fuel utilization. A previous study measured the weak oxidation resistance for very porous samples (measured porosity ∼ 70%) in H₂ with high H₂O content (over 50%) in the interval from 600 to 800 °C. Thus, additional tests were carried out with cells. Crofer22APU-supported solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) were produced by scalable cost competitive routes. One of the highly porous cells (calculated porosity 45%) was run under high fuel utilization conditions (calculated fuel utilization 56%), and a further two in H₂-50%H₂O. Another cell, with low porosity (calculated porosity 20%), was kept working in the same H₂-50%H₂O atmosphere for many hours. Durability tests with cells of different porosities confirmed that this is the main variable concerning degradation issues while working under high fuel utilization.