Scale Up and Coupling of the MOXIE Solid Oxide Electrolyzer for Both Terrestrial and Space Applications

Abstract

The Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment (MOXIE) is a first of its kind demonstration of in-situ resource utilization technology to produce propellant and breathable oxygen from the Mars ambient carbon dioxide. The use of Lunar and Martian resources represents a significant opportunity to reduce the cost of launch from Earth, enabling propellant production for space refueling, and allowing for life support of manned missions to the Lunar and Martian surfaces.Since developing the Solid OXide Electrolysis (SOXE) stacks for the Mars 2020 MOXIE program in 2017, the OxEon team has made significant advancements in scale and capabilities of the SOXE stack technology used in that system. Newer variants have a five-fold larger cell area and a 6.5-fold increase in cells per stack, for a stack scaled 33-times the 0.5% scale of the device in MOXIE. Six of these OxEon mission-scale SOXE stacks will produce 30 tons of propellant oxygen to fuel a Mars Ascent Vehicle (MAV) in the 19-month window between landing an unfueled MAV pre-supply mission and the next launch opportunity for the first crewed Mars Mission, meeting target requirements for a return mission. OxEon has built and demonstrated systems with mission-scale stacks for both Lunar and Martian applications. A system for the production of propellant H2 and O2 from Lunar ice was successfully tested in a cryo-vac chamber at the Colorado School of Mines in 2022. Another mission-scale demonstration system is scheduled to demonstrate production of O2 and methane from Martian H2O and atmospheric CO2 at Jet Propulsion Laboratory in 2022.In addition to SOXE/SOFC systems, the OxEon technology portfolio also consists of a low energy plasma reformer capable of producing sygnas from a variety of hydrocarbons and a modular-scale Fischer-Tropsch reactor for the production of liquid fuels from syngas. These technologies allow OxEon to provide a wide range of terrestrial energy solutions. A DOE Bioenergy Technologies Office (BETO) funded system is currently being fabricated to demonstrate the conversion of both CO2 and CH4 in anaerobic digester gas to liquid transportation fuels. This will be accomplished using an SOEC system to convert steam and CO2 to synthesis gas. OxEon’s plasma reformer will be used to convert methane to synthesis gas, using the plasma to catalyze the reaction of methane with steam and oxygen, supplied in part by the byproduct oxygen from the electrolysis system. The syngas from the plasma reformer and electrolysis systems are then combined to produce liquid fuels in the Fischer-Tropsch (FT) reactor. Figure 1