Development of a High-Performance Micro-Tubular SOFC based on a Hollow Fiber Support

A new design of micro-tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is proposed to improve current collection efficiency from the bore side. The proposed micro-tubular SOFC uses a ceramic hollow fiber as a support component above which functional layers are deposited. The provision of a thin porous layer of a current collector above the cell support makes it possible to collect current from the entire surface of the inner electrode. The thermal-fluid and electrochemical phenomena in the proposed design are studied through computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations. The simulation results suggest that due to significantly reduced ohmic losses, the proposed design is able to deliver a superior performance compared to the conventional anode-supported microtubular design. Finally, for the realization of the proposed design, the preparation of yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) hollow fibers through an electrophoretic deposition (EPD) method is also discussed.