TNO and Elcogen recently joined forces and initiated a collaboration agreement under the Important Projects of Common European Interest scheme (IPCEI) to develop advanced solid oxide electrolyzer (SOE) technology for future market demands.

The primary objective of the partnership is to drive innovation within important projects of common European interest, with the collective aim to accelerate the energy transition. With the growing number of offshore wind farms, green renewable energy production via electrolysis becomes ever more critical. Elcogen’s optimized stack technology promises increased profitability, not only reducing CO₂ emissions but also providing a cost-effective alternative to traditional fossil fuels.

Elcogen, with its leading development and manufacture of proprietary core components deployed in the solid oxide electrolyzer fuel cell systems, and TNO, with leading expertise in solid oxide electrolyzer technology, have been working alongside one another for more than a decade across projects such as NewSOC, CleanHyPro, OUTFOX and PressHyous under the Horizon Europe framework and within the framework of the VoltaChem shared innovation program.

TNO’s ongoing partnership with Elcogen further highlights the joint commitment to rapidly advancing clean energy solutions. Within this new collaboration, key performance indicators (KPIs) have been formulated in relation to the future of solid oxide stack efficiency, durability, scalability and overall impact.

Solid oxide electrolysis stands out from other technologies due to its ability to operate at significantly high temperatures while enabling around 20-30% higher efficiency when compared to low-temperature electrolyzers. Solid oxide core components also have the ability to produce hydrogen from renewable electricity as well as generate renewable energy (power and heat in fuel cell mode) from hydrogen and other fuels within an integrated setup.