(Invited) The Status of SOFC and SOEC R&D in the Clean Hydrogen Partnership

Abstract

The Clean Hydrogen Partnership—the successor of the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking (FCH JU)—aims to accelerate the development and improvement of advanced clean hydrogen technologies. It builds on 13 years of cooperation between public and private sectors through the FCH JU to help innovative technologies graduate from the experimental phases to be exploited by industry, businesses, and consumers for the benefit of Europe. The three members of the partnership are the European Commission, fuel cell and hydrogen industries represented by Hydrogen Europe and the research community represented by Hydrogen Europe Research. Supported topics cover all fuel cell technologies, SOFC being mostly developed for the stationary heat and power applications, while SOEC technologies are considered for the hydrogen production applications.There are different groups working in Europe on the SOFC/SOEC technologies and supported partially by the Clean Hydrogen partnership. So far, around €262 million have been allocated to support 71 projects, which address specifically SOFC or SOEC technologies. Largely thanks to this support, the EU is now a world leader on SOFC and SOEC technology with a well-established supply and value chain. In addition, several EU companies have commenced their efforts to increase their manufacturing capabilities with views to introduce their products beyond Europe. The mentioned figures do not include all projects of the first Call for Proposals 2022 of the Clean Hydrogen Partnership as some are still pending signature at the moment of writing. The Clean Hydrogen Partnership presentation will cover the status of R&D in Solid Oxide technologies in Europe including an overview of the European competitiveness in this sector.