Projections for Solid Oxide Electrolysers for Water Electrolysis

Abstract

It is shown that lowering area specific resistance (ASR) should lead to lower capital cost, CAPEX, and also to the lowest possible electrical power consumption per hydrogen production rate, OPEX. Based on simple correlations, the CAPEX of the solid oxide electrolysis cell (SOEC) stack could expect to be lowered by 25 percent. In terms of size this low-ASR SOEC stack obviously has the potential to be significantly smaller. Building off the DOE’s progress with SOFC, low-ASR SOEC and SOFC’s are possible with techniques such as sputtering and Atomic Layer Deposition (ALD). This is truly remarkable in that the low per kilowatt SOEC stack cost and low power consumption may make the SOEC an important economically viable SO manifestation.