NELLHI
The NELLHI project combines European know-how in single cells, coatings, sealing, and stack design to produce a novel 1 kW SOFC stack of unprecedented performance, together with the proof of concept of a 10 kWe SOFC stack. The target application of the development is stationary and residential combined heat and power production based on natural gas.
NELLHI is supported by the Fuel Cells and Hydrogen Joint Undertaking.
Expected IMPACT
It is estimated that up to 700,000 manufacturing jobs could be created in the global fuel cell industry over the next decade. USA, Japan, and Canada have competitive stationary fuel cells industries with newly emerging businesses. These and other regions such as Korea, China, and India are investing forcefully in the technology.
Europe cannot and need not lag behind, since the technical capacity is there, as well as a cutting-edge knowledge base. NELLHI proposes to put these together and turn into a world-class product, leveraging on:
- Improved electrical efficiency
Elcogen cells have already demonstrated a very high performance. NELLHI is built around these core components, so that the stack design may bring out this high performance undiminished at system level. The stack developed in this project will have smaller pressure losses and enable use of higher fuel utilization rates, which could lead to 60% system electrical efficiency at 10 kW scale.
- Improved robustness, including better lifetime
The stack concept will work at low operating temperature (650 ºC), compared to state of the art: 700-800 ºC. Combination of low operating temperature, thin and adhesive coatings and hybrid gaskets will lead to a stack with good robustness to long-term, cycling and transient operating conditions. Low operating temperature decreases temperature related degradation mechanisms (sintering and coarsening, diffusion, oxidation, etc.) and will increase stack life-time.
- Considerable cost reductions and mass production pathways
All the manufacturing methods, materials and designs are optimized for mass-production. Upscaling the cell footprint lowers scrap rate and saves on material expenditure. The interconnect plates will be manufactured of pre-coated steel and pressed and shaped by continuous hydroforming designed for a coil-to-coil, high-yield process. The gaskets are developed to compensate thickness variations, allowing higher tolerances, which will lead to lower stack costs.
Ultimately, the profitable customer price of the stack will be less than 1000 €/kWe, significantly lower than any stack producer can provide at the moment and undercutting the target system price set by the European Commission for 2020 (4000 €/kWe).
- A complete supply chain leading to a commercial product
Every component that makes up the final, validated, high-performance stack will be produced by a dedicated European industrial manufacturer especially for this design, optimising the fabrication process envisaging mass production within the next five years. Elcogen will act as the overall supervisor of each component’s development process in this respect, and will be the driver of the supply chain.
Industrial Advisory Group Project SOFC Silent Operation cost reduction efficiency emissions fuel flexible mass production nellhi robustness supply chain
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