The authors investigate in detail the influence of the mixing ratio of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in the fuel on the cell performance of the SOFC through numerical simulations for a single cell plate of the co-flow type planar cell. It is made clear that the cell performance is almost the same and excellent, independent of the mixing ratio of hydrogen and carbon monoxide under the nominal operating condition. The electromotive force of the hydrogen rich fuel gas is a little higher than that of the carbon monoxide rich fuel gas. The internal voltage drop in the cell decreases as the fraction of carbon monoxide becomes high. Since the value of the single cell voltage is determined by the balance of these two phenomena, the lowering of the electromotive force is dominant and the single cell voltage of the hydrogen rich fuel gas is higher when the inlet gas temperature is high, whereas the voltage drop reduction is dominant and the single cell voltage of the carbon monoxide rich fuel gas is higher when the temperature is low. The effect of the additional gases of water vapor and carbon dioxide is restricted to the single cell voltage shift, and the qualitative dependence of the single cell voltage on the inlet gas temperature is determined by the mixing ratio of hydrogen and carbon monoxide. (c) 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.