Outstanding presence of CENER at the European Conference and Exhibition of Electrolysis Technology EUROPEAN SOFC & SOE 2024
This year the biennial event 16th EUROPEAN SOFC & SOE took place in Lucerne (Switzerland) from 2nd to 5th of July. This event has already had 16 editions and has established itself as the most important Technology Conference on the European scene in terms of high-temperature electrolysis technology. As in the previous edition, Cener has participated again on this occasion by sending three communications by three members of our Hydrogen team in Sangüesa (HyGrIn Lab). The Conference was divided into two blocks according to the theme:
Block A:
– The talks within block A were divided into: Keynotes; Technology status at industry; Technology status and new opportunities; System design; Modelling and performance; System Integration y Stack design, Modelling and Performance.
Block B:
– 9 different categories: materials and cell modelling, fuel electrodes, novel cell design, innovative cell approaches, novel stack design, oxygen electrode, advanced characterization, degradation.
Topics such as modelling the impact of Ni migration and coarsening, cell degradation studies, new materials for electrodes (LNO perovskites), cell fabrication by different techniques (3D printing, in-situ polarisation) were discussed.
Our colleague Xabier Júdez presented a poster with the title Scalable Fabrication and Prototyping of CENER’s Solid Oxide Electrolyser Stacks.
It referred to the main advances made at CENER focused on the development of advanced SOC stacks in the kW scale from a double perspective. On the one hand, our roadmap towards the industrial-scale manufacture of 5 cm x 5 cm and 10 cm x 10 cm SOC cells based on the techniques of spreading and functional printing was presented. For this purpose, our HyGrIn Lab facilities in Sangüesa were presented, covering all phases of prototype manufacturing, including material characterization, scale-up, electrochemical characterization up to 5kW power.
Our colleague Miguel Fantova sent a communication with the title Innovative SOE Stacks: Scaling Towards Sustainable Hydrogen Production. In it we described the optimisations on the geometry of the stacks carried out with simulations and studies on the availability of materials and feasible manufacturing techniques. In these descriptions, special emphasis has been placed on the design of sealants to prevent subsequent leaks in the electrolysis process. All these technical aspects will be of great importance when it comes to minimising costs and optimising the efficiency of the processes. All these validations were confirmed experimentally by electrochemical studies.
Finally, our colleague Kandela Ruiz collaborated with a paper entitled Reproducibility studies for scalable fabrication of solid oxide cells.
The work focuses on one of HyGrin Lab’s objectives, which is the production of planar SOC cells, of different dimensions. As a first approximation, dimensions of 5 cm x 5 cm were selected. A selection of materials was made within the state of the art and different deposition techniques were applied to obtain the different functional layers of the cell and the subsequent elimination and organic elements.
Once the first prototypes were manufactured, the analysis of the electrochemical behavior of the cells was carried out, presenting I-V curves and impedance analysis. As a final result, the study includes a procedure to obtain SOC cells of 5 cm x 5 cm as a basic pillar for the manufacture of SOFC and SOEC stacks.