Worldwide Status of Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Technology

Abstract

The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology is expanding globally and finding new market opportunities in a variety of applications. The technology has not been fully tapped and has a promising future. The amazing versatility and applicability of the solid oxide (SO) technology is astounding as solid oxide fuel cells are developed as a source of efficient, low-cost electricity from natural gas distributed power generation, as reversible SO cells, and as solid oxide electrolyzers (SOEC) which have many applications in distributed generation (DG), hydrogen production, energy storage, microgrids, telecom backup market, combined heat and power (CHP), sensors, power to chemicals and fuels, data centers, ships, vehicles, absorption chillers, drones, and others. The United States has the greatest manufacturing capability and the most megawatts (MWs) of demonstrations of any nation due to Bloom Energy, which has over 350 MW of cumulative installation. The current US Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Fossil Energy SOFC Program administered by the National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) includes cell development and core technology research to increase the reliability, robustness, and durability of cell, stack, and system technology. Japan leads the world in the total number of demonstrations of the SOFC with over 60,000 kilowatt (kW)-class demonstrations by Kyocera. The European efforts of Ceres, SOLIDpower, Sunfire, Elcogen, and others represent major new directions into SO electrolysis, datacenters, and power-to-fuels. In the last decade China, through Suzhou Huatsing Power, SOFCMAN and CNFC, has made significant progress in SOFC and in electrolysis, scaling to 30-kWe and 80-kWe, respectively.