A wet agglomeration process is developed for preparing Fe-loaded carbon fuel for direct carbon solid oxide fuel cells (DC-SOFCs). This technique involves a simple mechanical mixing of carbon and Fe2O3 powder, along with a proper amount of polyvinylbutyral (PVB) ethanol solution as binder. A DC-SOFC with carbon fuel prepared by this technique is tested and its performance is compared with DC-SOFCs, respectively operated with pure carbon, carbon mechanically mixed with Fe2O3, and carbon prepared with the conventional impregnation technique. Experimental results show that its output performance is comparable to that of the cell with carbon fuel prepared by the impregnation technique and is better than those of cells, respectively with pure carbon and carbon mechanically mixed with Fe oxide as the fuels. The microstructures of the variety of carbon, the impedance spectra of the corresponding DC-SOFCs are measured and the superiority of the wet agglomeration process in preparing the Fe-loaded carbon for DC-SOFCs is analyzed in detail. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.