Thyssenkrupp and Fraunhofer forge ties on SOEC technology for large-scale hydrogen production

Thyssenkrupp and Fraunhofer forge ties on SOEC technology for large-scale hydrogen production

The high energy efficiency of SOEC technology will primarily benefit industries in which industrial waste heat is generated during production as its use significantly reduces electricity consumption.

Waste heat is generated in the production of green steel, ammonia, methanol, fertilizers and energy storage, among other things. In addition, the use of high-temperature technology eliminates the need for rare precious metals.

Solid oxide technology can work as a fuel cell and electrolyser using even the same device. This opens plenty of possibilities for the industrialization of both technologies in a cost-effective manner. Same electrode and electrolyte materials as well as interconnectors within the stack but very similar system design could feed one into the other.

In fuel cell mode, it is the only technology able to work directly with natural gas but with a significant reduction of emissions and increase efficiency to other natural gas enablers (~30 %). In addition, the fuel cell will work completely green if fed with green hydrogen and mixtures of natural gas and hydrogen are also allowed.

In electrolysis mode, it is the only technology able to be coupled with excess heat to overcome our issues with higher electricity prices due to their very low energy consumption and high efficiencies (up to 95 %).

They are made of cheap and abundant materials: metal oxides and ferritic stainless steel. Together with the low energy consumption makes them the technology with the least Total Cost of Ownership due to their low both CAPEX and OPEX.

Solid Oxides are not free of challenges and therefore, generous and important R&D efforts need to be dedicated to this technology. Apart from the common to all hydrogen projects (renewable electricity supply, willingness to pay of the off-taker, secure and high quality value chain, etc.), some of the challenges of this technology are:

Improve cell performance in order to increase current densities to allow to have smaller footprints. The largest footprint you have, the more added CAPEX comes from the rest of the balance of plant equipment needed in a Power-to-X/Hydrogen project.

Find materials that will allow the use of the device in reversible mode with enough performance and durability to make them commercially available.

Solid Oxide Hydrogen