Abstract:
Among the available renewable energy resources fuel cell is an emerging area for the
production of electricity. The major drive to use fuel cells in place of conventional
power systems is their efficiency, reliability, modularity, fuel flexibility, and
environmental friendliness. There are so many types of fuel cells which are
categorized based on the kind of electrolyte they employ. Among them, solid oxide
fuel cells (SOFCs) have many advantages over others. SOFCs are clean and highly
efficient energy conversion electrochemical devices. SOFCs have three main
components namely an anode, an electrolyte and a cathode. The electrolyte plays a
major role through which oxygen ions migrate constituting electric current. These
should have high ionic conductivity, negligible electronic conductivity and very little
porosity to avoid the crossover of the gases, stability in oxidizing and reducing
atmosphere, thermally compatible with the anode and cathode and low cost. The
present thesis is divided into nine chapters:
