The Catalonia Institute for Power Analysis (IREC) has launched a brand new pilot line for the manufacturing of ceramic gadgets utilizing 3D printing for the era and use of renewable hydrogen. This achievement positions IREC as a worldwide pioneer within the subject and represents a strategic advance for hydrogen expertise manufacturing in Catalonia.
This pilot line, introduced underneath the title Merce Lab (Manufacturing Power Ceramic Gadgets), has been put in due to funding from H2B2 inside the framework of the Tecnopropia challenge (IPCEI programme), amongst different initiatives. It can manufacture strong oxide cells (SOC) for gasoline cells and electrolysers at a pre-industrial scale.
At present, only a few actors worldwide are able to manufacturing one of these cell, which stands out for its excessive effectivity, superior to competing applied sciences. Because of 3D printing of practical ceramics, Merce Lab has change into the primary laboratory on the earth to make use of this methodology to supply SOC cells.
The principle benefit of 3D printing is its flexibility in design, lowered materials consumption, and a drastic discount within the weight and quantity of the ultimate system, thus growing the vitality density of the ultimate techniques. This enhance in vitality density makes these gadgets notably enticing each for transport functions and for storing renewable vitality by hydrogen era.
This can be a extremely revolutionary and scalable expertise, structured into varied blocks starting from the preparation of primary parts to cell stacking and validation. This construction will promote expertise switch to firms each nationally and internationally, and can assist the creation of recent enterprise fashions aimed toward accelerating the industrialisation of renewable hydrogen.
“This facility positions us as pioneers in SOC manufacturing at a worldwide scale… this can be a disruptive strategy to manufacturing processes and efficiency of ceramic-based gadgets, opening the door to new SOC techniques for functions that beforehand couldn’t meet desired necessities, comparable to maritime or aviation transport,” mentioned Marc Torrell, head of Merce Lab at IREC.
This initiative is a part of an Vital Challenge of Widespread European Curiosity (IPCEI) on hydrogen, known as Tecnopropia (~€25M), led and co-funded by the electrolyser firm H2B2 with Subsequent Technology funds from the Spanish Restoration, Transformation and Resilience Plan (PRTR). The laboratory can also be financed by different ongoing international-scope initiatives at IREC, comparable to CLEANHYPRO, HYP3D, COMECOCO2, and H2SHIFT. The preliminary funding for this pilot line is 2 million euros.
IREC has already fabricated the primary full gadgets on this laboratory, and is forging strategic collaborations with trade companions, together with main firms (H2B2, 3Dceram, AMES, Viver Clear Tech) and smaller firms (AESA, Nano4Energy, M-reformer), with the aim of accelerating the event and commercialization of this expertise. This initiative is not going to solely facilitate the entry of hydrogen into the Spanish market however can even assist democratize entry to cleaner and extra sustainable vitality applied sciences.
The event of this pilot line responds to the rising quantity of funding being allotted to infrastructure for deploying the hydrogen financial system. On this context, IREC plans to create Oxhyd Power, a spin-off devoted to the commercialization of SOC gasoline cells as a key component within the vitality transition.
Key product and pilot line options
SOC applied sciences supply a twin benefit: they’ll function each as gasoline cells (utilizing hydrogen to generate electrical energy) and as electrolysers (producing hydrogen for vitality storage). Based mostly on ceramic supplies and working at excessive temperatures, these gadgets can save as much as 25% of the vitality required to generate hydrogen, making them considerably extra environment friendly than present polymer-based cells.
The manufacturing capability of the present pre-industrial plant is estimated at round 2 MW/yr. It’s simply scalable and achieves a fourfold enhance within the energy density of ultimate gadgets in contrast with present business applied sciences.
The estimated price is roughly €800/kW, which might carry the worth of hydrogen right down to beneath €4/kg. One other distinguishing issue is that the supplies used will likely be sustainable, because the modules will likely be freed from cobalt, nickel, uncommon earths, and different essential uncooked supplies. This represents a superb enterprise alternative given international projections of demand for electrolysers and gasoline cells by 2030, estimated within the tons of of gigawatts – far past present international manufacturing capability.
This pilot line covers the complete worth chain of the expertise, structuring the method into 5 primary blocks: i) preparation of inks as uncooked materials; ii) manufacturing of the cells, that are the essential items of the system; iii) manufacturing of interconnectors, key parts for system integration; iv) element stacking and v) validation of the ultimate system to make sure its high quality and effectivity earlier than subsequent use.