Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Development for Cost-Effective Hydrogen Production

A research and development program is under way at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory to develop, fabricate and demonstrate operation of an efficient solid oxide electrolyzer stack capable of producing hydrogen from steam. The focus is on reducing the stack manufacturing costs that could be achieved via employing advanced fabrication techniques to reduce the cell area-specific resistances, component thicknesses, and material volumes. This presentation will provide an overview of the progress on cell development, cell size scale-up, cell electrochemical testing, long term durability assessment, and post-test characterization. The data obtained using both small and large size cells will be compared. 2D and 3D models are being constructed to predict expected thermal and electrical performance of SOEC stack.