The EU awarded a Euros 5.8 million grant to a European consortium to develop Large Solid Oxide Fuel Cell-based (SOFC) power plants. The three-year project has a total budget of the project of Euros 11 million.
The project focuses on materials, components and systems required for efficient, reliable and cost-effective large scale SOFC power plants. Systems design, balance of plant component engineering, such as heat exchangers, and the processes and materials required for low cost stack production are included in the project.
Commercialising SOFC-based power plants is currently the objective of a number research programmes, with the first demonstration plants expected to be operating by the end of the decade.
The size of these plants will range from 20 – 50 kW to 250 kW and up to 1 MW, using pressurised and non-pressurised technologies. These will be suitable both for combined heat and power and power-only in distributed generation applications.
SOFC plants are expected to be operating commercially in the middle of the next decade. Advantages over previous electricity generators are expected to be high fuel efficiencies, low emissions, multi-fuel capabilities and the ability to fire them with bio-fuels, including gas from biomass gasification and natural gas.
The research consortium, coordinated by VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland comprises nine collaborators from across Europea: VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland; Wärtsilä Corporation; Rolls-Royce Fuel Cell Systems Ltd; Topsoe Fuel Cell A/S; Forschungszentrum Jülich GmbH; Dipartimento di Ingegneria Chimica e di Processo "G.B. Bonino" - Università di Genova; BOSAL RESEARCH NV; Verteco Oy; and Inmatec Technologies GmbH.
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