In this work, the fish oil has been introduced to increase porosity in anode support substrate. The NiO + 8YSZ/8YSZ/LSM + 8YSZ anode-supported single cell has been fabricated by sequentially employing tape-casting, co-sintering and screen printing, adopting fish oil as the pore former of the anode support. Through regulating the fish oil content, it is found that the cell with 6 wt.% fish oil adding into the anode during fabrication shows the optimal performance. The cathode of the anode-supported single cell is sintered under the temperature of 1050 degrees C. The power density of the fabricated cell, at the output voltage of 0.7 V, can reach 0.592 W cm(-2) and 0.416 W cm(-2) at 850 degrees C and 750 degrees C respectively; which are about 1.3 and 1.6 times that of the pristine cell. The total resistance (R-t) values of the cell without pore former are about 2.19 and 1.40 times that of the former at 850 degrees C and 750 degrees C, respectively; while the concentration polarization resistance (R-c) values are about 2.34 and 2.14 times that of the former. The degradation rate of the fabricated cell at 750 degrees C, discharging under constant current of 10 A for 215 h, is 0.68% kh(-1). These results show the effects of fish oil, as pore former, on the performance improvement of anode-supported single cells. (C) 2016 Hydrogen Energy Publications LLC. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.