Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells: Bridging Materials Development and Process System Engineering for Gigawatt-Scale Applications

TL;DR

This paper reviews the progress and challenges of high-temperature solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) for large-scale hydrogen production, emphasizing system-level issues, operational strategies, and pathways for commercialization.

Contribution

It uniquely addresses system-level challenges and proposes a roadmap for scaling SOEC technology to gigawatt applications, beyond material and stack innovations.

Findings

Pressurized operation enhances system performance.

Dynamic operation strategies can improve SOEC capabilities.

Balance-of-plant costs are significant and need economies of scale.

Abstract

High-temperature solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) are a potential core power-to-X (P2X) technology due to their unparalleled system efficiencies, that can exceed 85 % when excess heat from exothermic downstream processes is available. Recent advancements in materials, cell and stack design have enabled the deployment of megawatt (MW) scale demonstration plants and gigawatt (GW) scale manufacturing capacities. Consequently, key challenges to industrial-scale adoption scale now increasingly lie at the system level. Unlike previous SOEC reviews focused on materials and stack-level innovations, this work uniquely addresses emerging interdisciplinary system-level challenges and highlights the need for a paradigm shift. Several key insights are identified. Pressurized operation plays a crucial role in enhancing SOEC system performance and enabling better process integration. The dynamic capabilities of SOECs are better than often assumed and can further be improved via advanced operating strategies and modularization. Balance-of-plant (BoP) component costs rival stack capital expenditure, emphasizing the need for cost reductions through economies of scale via mass production and cross-industry synergies. Co-electrolysis remains at a lower technology readiness level and lacks MW scale demonstration. Furthermore, demonstrated integration with downstream processes across entire P2X chains remains scarce. Future research and development strategies are proposed, offering a roadmap to overcome these challenges and accelerate SOEC commercialization.