Proposal Papers for Policy Making and Governmental Action toward Low Carbon Society

LCS-FY2016-PP-03

SOFC Systems (Vol. 4):
Application of SOFCs to Steam Electrolysis and Technological Challenges

Summary

 In order to facilitate the widespread use of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs), hydrogen production using an electrolyzer with SOFC was investigated by analyzing electrolysis performance and hydrogen production cost. A numerical simulation model for a tubular cell-stack of a segmented-in-series tubular solid oxide fuel cell (SST-SOFC) was constructed.

 Based on the model, a detailed analysis of steam electrolysis with SST-SOFC (SOEC) was carried out and energy consumption for hydrogen production was examined. A process flow diagram of steam electrolysis using SST-SOEC was made and a heat and mass balance study was performed to determine steam electrolysis efficiency and the SST-SOEC system manufacturing cost. From the results, the technology scenario for the hydrogen production process with SST-SOEC involving compression and storage of hydrogen was proposed, i.e., an innovative way to achieve hydrogen production cost of about 4 JPY/MJ (40 JPY/Nm3 -H2) was proposed. Finally, future technological challenges to realize low cost hydrogen production using SOEC are discussed.

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