Experimental Comparison and Performance Evaluation of Planar Solid Oxide Single Cell Available to Purchase

Nowadays, in a world characterized by the need to reduce the production of pollutants, by global climate changes, by the progressive lack of availability of cheap fossil fuels, one of the most important goals of scientific research is to design systems that can provide energy with low environmental impact. Planar Solid Oxide Fuel Cells (SOFC) are considered to be power generators with high efficiency independent on size and low emissions. Fuel cell laboratory (FCLab) of University of Perugia has focused his studies on SOFC operating at high temperature (800–1000°C), characterized by greater flexibility in the choice of fuel. This study focuses on definition and realization of experimental test able to define the quality of a SOFC single cell and on the effect of test condition parameter. The performance of the cell is evaluated via polarization curves realized in different external conditions. Area Specific Resistance (ASR) is used as main test output. Results analysis confirm that ASR gives important information on fuel cell performance and can be used to compare an qualify SOFC single cell.