The first-generation kW-class SOFC stack supports power generation with various fuels such as CH4, methanol, ethanol, coke oven gas, and ammonia. The electrolysis of CO2 to CO breaks through the 2000-hour mark.

It is learned that H2-Bank, a high-temperature fuel cell stack industrialization company, announced that the company has completed tens of millions of angel rounds of financing at the beginning of this year. It is funded by Zhongke Chuang Star and Dongmu shares jointly invested. With this funding support, “Hydrogen Technology” has initially opened up the technical route of the first product and realized the prototype development of the “first-generation new flat-tube structure solid oxide fuel cell kilowatt-level stack”. At present, the company is actively building a reactor R&D pilot line, and intends to realize the automated production of two reactor products.

The full name of “Hydrogen Technology” is Zhejiang Hydropower Technology Co., Ltd. Founded in December 2019, it is a new energy technology company focusing on the development and manufacturing of SOFC stacks.

SOFC (Solid Oxide Fuel Cell), or solid oxide fuel cell, is a branch of fuel cell. The fuel cell is a chemical device that directly converts the chemical energy of the fuel into electrical energy. It is considered to be a new disruptive power generation technology following hydropower, thermal power generation and atomic power generation. Among them, because of its outstanding advantages such as high power generation efficiency, long life, low cost, and wide fuel adaptability, SOFC has broad application prospects and development in the fields of distributed power generation, combined heat and power, extended-range vehicles, drones, and ships. The potential is huge.

In the past 10 years, SOFC technology has entered the preliminary stage of commercial application in developed countries represented by the United States and Japan, and is ushering in an explosive period. As of 2019, more than 50,000 sets of SOFC distributed heat and power systems have been installed in the Japanese market; Bloom Energy, FuelCell Energy, and LG Fuel Cell Systems in the United States have also successfully demonstrated and run 50~250kW SOFC distributed power generation systems; some European countries have also successively The SOFC distributed combined heat and power system of 1~5 kW was launched and applied in the market. The above products are still in the verification operation stage in China.

And “Hydrogen Technology” is a SOFC stack R&D and manufacturing enterprise that hopes to narrow the gap between China’s high-temperature fuel cell technology and developed countries and catch up with the international advanced level.

“Hydrogen Technology” successfully developed the first-generation kilowatt SOFC stack

As early as 2015, the core founding technical team of Hydrogen State proposed a new flat-tube structure battery technology route. Compared with traditional fuel cells with flat-plate and tube-type structures, the battery has the characteristics of strong stability, low cost, high temperature resistance, and less integration difficulty.

With this technology as the core, the team and Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen) carried out a battery structure optimization design based on multi-field coupling theory, and at the same time, a ceramic manufacturing company developed a battery molding preparation technology based on an extrusion molding process. The small-batch preparation of flat-tube structure batteries is introduced.

The first generation A60 small battery

In response to the problems of performance degradation, process complexity, high temperature chemical compatibility and other issues in the commercialization of SOFC systems, the technical team has continuously optimized and innovated, solved many technical problems, and recently successfully developed the first generation based on a new structure Kilowatt-class solid oxide fuel cell stack.

The stack uses a unique flat tube structure battery. Compared with the traditional flat structure battery, the anti-destructive load strength has been increased by 20 times. The number of thermal cycles of the battery stack unit has increased to more than 100 while the performance remains stable. It supports CH4, Methanol, ethanol, coke oven gas, ammonia and other fuels generate electricity, and the electrolysis of CO2 to CO breaks through the 2000-hour mark.

At the same time, in terms of manufacturing process, its team adopts advanced ceramic processing technology and cheap metal oxides as raw materials, which greatly reduces the manufacturing cost of powder and slurry, which is conducive to mass production of products.

kW-class stack based on the first-generation battery

5 years plan to develop and build a 100kW-level single SOFC stack module in 2025

In the past 20 years, domestic SOFC technology research and development has been mainly concentrated in the laboratory, and related infrastructure and market applications are still in their infancy.

In order to realize the industrialization of SOFC technology, “Hydrogen Technology” has successively established an analog simulation and structural design R&D center with Harbin Institute of Technology (Shenzhen), and established H2-Bank battery with the Ningbo Institute of Materials, Chinese Academy of Sciences and Dongmu Group. R&D and manufacturing centers for key components of the battery, and industrial ceramic technology research institutes and suppliers to establish raw materials and battery manufacturing bases, and promote the “integration of production, education and research” of SOFC technology by opening up the upstream and downstream industrial chains.Development.

At present, the company’s product line is gradually entering the stage of large-scale landing: A60 battery has achieved stable mass production, A130 battery quality inspection module has completed the design and equipment selection; the stack has completed 100W~25KW, etc.same power rate module design, including 1KW power generation module completed the first generation prototype prototype, 5kW power generation module entered the development stage, Open up the assembly process route.

In terms of application scenarios, the hydrogen state series products are now mainly used for distributed power generation in the stationary field, such as natural gas power generation; electrolysis of water combined with renewable energy to produce hydrogen; and new energy electric vehicles and fuel cell vehicles “Electric and hydrogen dual charging” type comprehensive energy supply.

“Hybond Technology” CEO Xiang revealed that the company will implement a stepped development strategy in the next 5 years. “In 2021, the company will launch 1kW and 5KW stack products and complete the pilot test of stack lines; launch 10-25KW stack products in 2022-2023, and at the same time create demonstration cases for downstream applications; in 2025, build 100kW-level static power generation Stack modules, and realize the mass production and shipment of a full range of stack products. By then, the annual capacity of the stack will exceed 10 MW.”

Currently, “Hydrogen”Bang Technology” is preparing for the second round of financing, which will be used for the construction of a mass production manufacturing base with an annual output of 500-1000 5-10kW high-temperature fuel cell stacks.