The Project

Hydrogen is a key energy vector in a future decarbonised economy. Large-scale application in numerous sectors, such as transport, iron & steel plants, and the chemical industry requires efficient and sustainable production routes of green hydrogen. Electrolysis of water/steam using electricity from renewable sources like wind and solar is a sustainable solution.

Currently all electrolyser technologies are still challenged by high CAPEX and OPEX, which are closely related to the used materials and manufacturing processes to produce the electrolyser system, and operational characteristics such as electrical efficiency, lifetime, and flexible operating modes.

Compared to the most mature electrolysis technologies, alkaline electrolysis (AEL) and (to slightly lesser extent) polymer exchange membrane electrolysis (PEMEL), the high temperature or solid oxide electrolysis (SOEL) has significantly attractive features, which can be harvested for lowering CAPEX and OPEX:

• High electrical efficiencies approaching 100%,
• Reduced materials costs as the stacks do not use noble elements,
• Operational flexibility.

SOEL challenges that need to be solved to reach large-scale market breakthrough are:

• Lifetime increase and degradation reduction of SOEL stacks to reduce OPEX 
• Increased flexibility of operation when combining SOEL with renewable energy sources (RES). Presently, ceramic brittleness of most mature SOEL configurations challenge rapid operational strategies.
• Reducing costs for process materials (e.g. Co, Rare earth elements), components production and assemblies.

The goal of the NOAH2 project is to provide a sustainable, cost-competitive, flexible, and durable stack technology for hydrogen production at temperatures < 700°C by developing innovative electrodes, cell, and stack designs.

NOAH2 will significantly boost electrolysis performance and durability of cells & stacks beyond State-of-the-Art (SoA), while reducing critical raw materials (CRM) and cost of manufacturing using environmentally friendly and well-established large scale production routes for solid oxide technology.