R-018

Adrien Lamibrac

adrien.lamibrac@elcogen.com

Ivan Vakulko

Elcogen A/S, Estonia

Solid Oxide Cell development in the scope of PilotSOEL EU project

The advancement and broad adoption of Solid Oxide Cells (SOCs) for hydrogen production depends on both manufacturing capabilities and operational efficiency. From a manufacturing perspective, key priorities include cost reduction, sustainability, and minimizing dependence on critical raw materials. Meanwhile, performance and durability are crucial for lowering operational expenses (OPEX). The emphasis is on developing more sustainable SOCs production while reducing both the cost and usage of critical raw materials.

The European project PilotSOEL aims at investigating several aspects of these challenges and focuses on innovative upscalable and low-cost SOEL component manufacturing processes. The development of these processes is conditioned to:

-        the reduction of Critical Raw Materials (CRM) usage

-        the recycling of waste during cell production processes

-        a higher degree of automation in the stack assembly to reduce manufacturing cost.

This presentation reports on the latest results obtained in this framework and will provide insight into some of the technological solutions for cell manufacturing, investigated by the consortium:

•        High-performing and durable cells with effective protective coating applied by Physical Vapor Deposition (PVD) and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD)

•        microstructural cell optimization to reduce the cell resistance and improve both performance and durability at high current operation

The project is aiming to improve the SOEL processing Manufacturing Readiness Level (MRL) from MRL 4 at the beginning of the project to at least MRL 5 at the end of the project.