Status of Stack & System Development at Sunfire and Industrial Outlook
Authors: Walter Christian , Posdziech Oliver 
Published: July 2021

Introduction

Sunfire develops and produces high-temperature fuel cell (SOFC), electrolyzer (SOEC) and co-electrolysis (Co-SOEC) systems. SOFCs convert fuels and gases into electricity and heat for residential, commercial and industrial applications. SOECs and Co-SOECs convert water and/or CO2 with preferably renewable electricity into hydrogen or syngas. With these technologies, Sunfire addresses a multitude of challenges in our energy systems.

Development and industrial outlook

Sunfire continuously improves its technology on stack as well as at system integration level. For the stack technology, a decrease of the combined life cycle costs (€ kW-1 h-1) is the key driver for development. Recent improvements in this KPI as well as updates to our long-term stack tests in SOFC (~25kh), SOEC (~10kh) and Co-SOEC (~5kh) will be shown and discussed.

Furthermore, updates on production scaling will be shown. This includes improvement of various processes as well as buying and commissioning new equipment for automated production.

Sunfire’s products are also continuously being improved. Our existing micro-CHP solution (Sunfire-Home) offers a rated electrical output of 750 W and a thermal output of 1,300 W. In addition to reducing emissions, the advantages of Sunfire-Home include high efficiency, fully automatic operation with remote access and simple integration with modern building technology. Updates on the running units within the scope of the PACE-project and next steps will be shown.

With Sunfire-Remote, we provide a compact SOFC-system for self-sufficient and off-grid power supply from pipeline gas and Propane. The units are battery chargers primarily and provide continuous power for a wide range of applications with an average power consumption up to 400 W. Flexibility in the kilowatt range can be covered by batteries that has to be selected according to the needed capacities and specific requirements. Also here, updates of the market status will be given.

Furthermore, Sunfire is the leading provider of SOEC systems worldwide, quickly moving into the multi-megawatt market for industrial applications. By focusing on the utilization of industrial off-heat to maximize overall electrical efficiency, the operational cost for continuous hydrogen production can be kept at a minimum. Sunfire units are therefore specifically suited for brown-field industrial applications, as demonstrated at the steel plant of Salzgitter. There, a 730 kWelAC SOEC system was installed in 2020 within the GrInHy2.0 project, after successfully operating a 150 kWelAC rSOC system since 2017.(1) The electrolyzer is expected to be in operation for at least 13,000 hours by the end of 2022, while producing at least 100 tons of green hydrogen from renewable electricity. Additionally, a 2,6MW SOEC System for the operation at a refinery of Neste in Rotterdam is currently being planned within the framework of the MULTIPHLY project as will be shown.

In addition to pure hydrogen electrolysis (HyLink), Sunfire is also developing the Co-SOEC (SynLink) providing renewable syngas, a mixture of H2 and CO, for chemical applications and Power-to-Liquid processes. The operation with Sunfires technology has been successfully demonstrated within the Kopernikus PtX project and the next step will be the supply of a 1 MW Co-SOEC unit within MegaSyn.

References

(1)Schwarze, O. Posdziech, J. Mermelstein, S. Kroop, Fuel Cells, (2019).