This is the second post in a four post blog series discussing our takeaways from attending the recent SOFC-XVI Symposium 2019 located in Kyoto, Japan. Check back later for the next two parts in this series, and view the previous post Tokyo 2020: The first Hydrogen Olympic Games.
Since the signing of the Paris Agreement on climate change in 2016, there is a larger push from government funding agencies to move towards renewable resources such as wind, solar, and hydro-power. The energy produced by these methods can then be sold back to the grid or saved for future use by being converted to other storage methods such as hydrogen.
Fuel Cells have demonstrated that they are able to be an effective alternate energy technology, powering both vehicle and stationary applications. Now the industry is transitioning to hydrogen generation and storage in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Of the various technologies being researched, SOECs have the potential to be the most efficient at achieving this vision of creating green hydrogen from renewable sources.
We saw examples of this shift towards SOEC technology during Nexceris’ recent participation in the SOFC-XVI Symposium held in Kyoto, Japan last month. While talking with leading researchers at our booth and sitting in the talks, we learned how they are approaching this new paradigm on how to provide a solution to the world’s need for hydrogen. This excitement towards SOEC hydrogen generation and storage can also be found in the vision laid out by the US DOE’s H2@Scale program that aims to work with industry and national laboratories to increase pathways towards hydrogen energy creation and storage for use in many varying applications.
The research avenues in SOEC are similar to the ones on the fuel cell side, and the knowledge that Nexceris has gained through SOFC research can be leveraged to push SOECs forward. As part of this effort Nexceris was recently awarded a project to research and produce advanced coatings to enhance the durability of SOEC stacks. If you are working in this area, we would love to share with you how our insights and technology could help you solve your challenges or accelerate your design.
Contact us below to learn more about our SOFC and SOEC technologies and how we can help you with your current projects.
