In the present work, power density and hydrogen consumption in a co-flow planar solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) are studied according to the inlet functional parameters; such as the operational temperature, the operational pressure, the flow rates and the mass fractions of the species. Furthermore, the effect of the cell size is investigated. The results of a zero and a one-dimensional numerical electro-dynamic model predict the remaining quantity of the fed hydrogen at the output of the anode flow channel. The remaining hydrogen quantities and the SOFC's power density obtained are discussed as a function of the inlet functional parameters, the geometrical configuration of the cell and several operating cell voltages values. (C) 2008 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.