PilotSOEL Project

The PilotSOEL project focuses on innovative upscalable and low-cost SOEL component manufacturing processes with reduced use of Critical Raw Materials (CRM) and waste recycling in the cell production processes, and increases the degree of automation in the stack assembly to reduce manufacturing cost. The project develops a novel environmentally friendly water-based tape casting process with a reduced number of process steps for half-cell production. Innovative thin protective barrier layers deposited by ALD and PVD, together with microstructural cell optimisation, will reduce the cell resistance, improving the cell performance and durability at high current operation. The dense and thin coating made by PVD will improve the oxidization resistance of the interconnector, allowing the use of cheaper alloys, and ensuring a long stack lifetime. A life-cycle assessment (LCA) and a techno-economic analysis (TEA) will be performed to benchmark the developed processes in PilotSOEL with the SoA SOEL production processes. The project aims to improve the SOEL processing MRL from MRL 4 at the beginning of the project to at least MRL 5 at the end of the project. Project partners: Technical University of Denmark (coordinator), Elcogen AS (Estonia), Elcogen OY (Finland), Beneq (Finland), Naco Technologies (Latvia), University of Ljubljana (Slovenia). The project is supported by the Clean Hydrogen Partnership and its members and it has received funding from the European Commission through Horizon Europe Framework Programme.