UK / India – After initially signing an agreement in 2022 to pilot a solid oxide electrolyser for the production of renewable hydrogen in Bangalore, India, with oil multinational Shell plc, Ceres Power Holdings plc, a fuel cell system manufacturer based in Horsham, UK, has been awarded a further contract for the second phase of the project, to help design and build the solid oxide electrolyser (“SOEC”) module for use in large scale industrial applications. The first phase of the trial was successful, leading to the deployment of a 1MW SOEC system. The second phase requires scaling this to 100s of megawatts and then successfully integrating it into industrial plants that produce sustainable fuels, such as green hydrogen. The aim is to target a module level of efficiency of less than 36kWh/kg and drive down the price, making it much more competitive as an alternative fuel/energy option in sectors such as heavy transportation.

Solid oxide electrolyser cells (SOECs) use a ceramic as the electrolyte in the process of splitting water molecules to produce hydrogen gas. This method of hydrogen production requires a much higher temperature to work than proton-exchange membrane (PEM) electrolysis. Nevertheless, Ceres aims to produce hydrogen at efficiencies 20% greater than other methods by employing waste heat from other industrial processes.