Heat engines emit huge amounts of exhaust which contain considerable quantities of, heat and chemical energies. An increasing public awareness of global warming and oil depletion has required the development of innovative methods of recovering energy from such exhaust. A promising approach is to produce electricity front unburned fuel by using a fuel cell system. The exhaust includes cracked-light hydrocarbons, offering the possibility of applying this system to a power generator. Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) can work at elevated temperatures but have poor thermal and mechanical shock resistance, In this study, we address this problem by operating the fuel cell system in a single-chamber mode, wherein no separation between fuel and oxidant gases is required. This operation provides high tolerance toward thermal cycling and breakage of the electrolyte. As a result, a twelve-cell stack exhibits stable and high performance in the exhaust from a motorcycle. (c) 2007 The Electrochemical Society.