Development of new electrode materials and understanding of degradation mechanisms on Solid Oxide High Temperature Electrolysis Cells.

The high temperature Solid Oxide Electrolysis (SOEC) technology has a huge potential for future mass production
of hydrogen and shows great dynamics to become commercially competitive against other electrolysis technologies
(AEL, PEMEL), which are better established but more expensive and less efficient. On the downside, up to now
SOECs are less mature and performance plus durability are currently the most important issues that need to be
tackled, while the technological progress is still below the typically accepted standard requirements. Indicatively, the
latest studies on State-of-the-Art (SoA) cells with Ni/YSZ and LSM as cathode and anode electrodes, respectively,
show that the performance decreases about 2-5% after 1000h of operation for the H2O electrolysis reaction,
whereas for the co-electrolysis process the situation is even worse and the technology level is much more behind
the commercialization thresholds. In this respect, SElySOs is taking advantage of the opportunity for a 4-years
duration project and focuses on understanding of the degradation and lifetime fundamentals on both of the SOEC
electrodes, for minimization of their degradation and improvement of their performance and stability mainly under
H2O electrolysis and in a certain extent under H2O/CO2 co-electrolysis conditions. Specifically, the main efforts
will be addressed on the study of both water and O2 electrodes, where there will be investigation on: (i) Modified
SoA Ni-based cermets, (ii) Alternative perovskite-type materials, (iii) Thorough investigation on the O2 electrode,
where new more efficient O2 evolving electrodes are going to be examined and proposed. An additional strong point
of the proposed project is the development of a theoretical model for description of the performance and degradation
of the SOEC fuel electrode. Overall, SElySOs adopts a holistic approach for coping with SOECs degradation and
performance, having a strong orientation on the market requirements.

Topic:

FCH-02.1-2014 Research in electrolysis for cost effective hydrogen production

Coordinator:

FOUNDATION FOR RESEARCH AND TECHNOLOGY HELLAS, GREECE

Other participating organisations: