A Cu-ceria solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) is shown to generate electric power using jet fuels and Pennsylvania crude oil through direct oxidation of the fuels. The liquid fuels contained up to 910 ppm of sulfur and were injected into the anode compartment either with or without N-2 dilution. The performance of the fuel cell was stable over 30 h for jet fuels and Pennsylvania crude oil without N-2 dilution whereas N-2 dilution prolonged the stable power generation up to 100 h for jet fuel and up to 80 h for Pennsylvania crude oil. The generated power density was about 0.1 W cm(-2) for both fuels. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.