Development of metallic substrate supported planar solid oxide fuel cells fabricated by atmospheric plasma spraying

A planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) consisting of a cell supported with a porous metallic substrate and a metallic separator has been developed. In the fabrication of the cell, anodes and electrolytes were formed on sintered Ni-felt substrates using flame spraying (FS) and atmospheric plasma spraying (APS), respectively. The APS is also applied to form (LaSr)MnO sub(3) protective coatings on the metallic separators. With these metallic cells and separators, a 3 kW-class stack, which consisted of 30 cells (15-cell blockx2) was constructed and operated. The active electrode area of the cell was 600 cm super(2). The stack generated 3.3 kW at 970 degree C when the current density was 0.3 A cm super(-2) and the fuel utilization 50%. It did not show any degradation for the initial 2100 h, but a few cells in the lower 15-cell block became unstable after 2100 h. On the other hand, the upper 15-cell block was stably operated for 3200 h.