Horizontal fuel cell tube system and methods

A fuel cell system for generating electrical power, the system comprising:

• a plurality of open-ended tubular solid oxide fuel cells positioned horizontally between a fuel inlet plate and a fuel outlet plate;
• wherein the fuel inlet plate and the fuel outlet plate comprise a series of openings for the fuel cells, and each comprise a compressed layer of ceramic fiberboard that forms a seal around each of the fuel cells.

A fuel cell system for generating electrical power, the system comprising:

• a plurality of vertically-stacked fuel cell layers, each layer comprising a plurality of open-ended tubular solid oxide fuel cells positioned horizontally between two ceramic fiberboard fuel plenums and placed electrically in parallel;
• wherein each layer of the plurality of layers is electrically insulated from neighboring layers.

A method of forming a seal around a tubular solid oxide fuel cell, the method comprising:

• inserting the fuel cell through at least three seal layers, the seal layers comprising first and second metal plate layers and a ceramic fiberboard layer;
• and
• compressing the ceramic fiberboard layer between the metal plates to form a seal around the fuel cell.

A fuel cell system for generating electrical power, the system comprising:

• a plurality of open-ended tubular solid oxide fuel cells positioned horizontally between a top half and a bottom half of a ceramic manifold;
• wherein the ceramic manifold forms a seal around the ends of the fuel cells, and wherein an opening at one end of the ceramic manifold forms an inlet manifold, and an opening at the other end of the ceramic manifold forms an outlet manifold.

A fuel cell system for generating electrical power, the system comprising:

• a plurality of vertically-stacked fuel cell layers, each layer comprising a plurality of open-ended tubular solid oxide fuel cells positioned horizontally between a ceramic exhaust plenum and a metal fuel input manifold;
• wherein the fuel input manifold comprises projections for electrically connecting each fuel cell layer to a next layer above it, and wherein a corrugated current collector for each layer makes a snap fit with the plurality of fuel cells of the layer.