Projections for Solid Oxide Electrolysers for Water Electrolysis

Abstract

It is shown that lowering area specific resistance (ASR) or Rt (total resistance) should lead to lower capital cost, CAPEX, and also to the lowest possible electrical power consumption per hydrogen produced, OPEX. Many researchers have focused for many years on thinning component layers and developing new higher-performance materials. Thinning of components to lower RT is widely researched. Based on simple correlations, the CAPEX of the solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) stack cost could expect to be lowered by 25 percent by thinning components. In terms of size this low- Rt SOEC stack has the potential to be significantly smaller. Building off the DOE’s progress with SOFC, even lower Rt SOEC and SOFC’s are possible with techniques such as sputtering and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD) which produce better conducting materials. This is truly remarkable in that the low per kilowatt SOEC stack cost and low power consumption may make the SOEC a truly realizable economically viable SO manifestation.