Ceres has been awarded a further contract for the second phase of its collaboration with Shell, to cooperate in the design of a solid oxide electrolyzer (SOEC) module, for use in large-scale industrial applications such as synthetic fuels, ammonia and green steel.

Ceres has been working with Shell since 2022, leading to the deployment of a 1MW SOEC system at Shell’s R&D facility in Bangalore, India. Building on this demonstration, the focus of this contract is to develop a pressurised module design that can be scaled to 100s of megawatts and be integrated with industrial plants to produce sustainable future fuels.

The program will use key learnings and data being harvested from the existing 1MW demonstration project to develop a commercially competitive and scalable solution.

Key to this is the significant efficiency gains offered by SOEC technology, which results in approximately 35% more hydrogen produced per unit of electrical energy when coupled with heat from industrial processes. The project will examine pressurized systems that can drive further efficiency, performance, and integration with other processes, targeting a module level efficiency of less than 36kWh/kg of hydrogen, which aligns to EU SOE 2030 technology targets.