Multifuel SOFC system with  Maritime Energy vectors

Project Information

FuelSOME

Grant agreement ID: 101069828

DOI

10.3030/101069828

EC signature date 18 May 2022

Start date 1 September 2022

End date 31 August 2026

Funded under

• Climate, Energy and Mobility

Total cost

€ 2 687 485,50

EU contribution

€ 2 499 985,50

Coordinated by

AVL LIST GMBH
Austria

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - FuelSOME (Multifuel SOFC system with  Maritime Energy vectors)

Reporting period: 2022-09-01 to 2024-02-29

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

The FuelSOME project aims to creating multifuel Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems optimized for maritime applications, particularly for oceanic vessels. It investigates the viability of utilizing hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol as multifuels, with a focus on sourcing these fuels from renewable energy or waste streams to reduce carbon emissions. The project includes various activities, such as conceptual exploration of technology, evaluation of fuel pathways, development of stack-level technologies, and design of system architectures.
Significant achievements so far include the successful design and manufacture of stack modules capable of handling different fuels, validation of components under various fuel atmospheres, and the development of fuel reforming and cracking units to enhance fuel processing efficiency. Moreover, progress in assessing the socio-environmental-economic impacts of the project is ahead of schedule, with milestones being met without significant risks identified. Furthermore a publicly available report on potential technology concepts and fuel pathways for multifuel SOFC systems in the maritime sector was successfully finished highlighting varying costs and technological readiness, with ongoing research aiming to refine pathways and identify sustainable fuel production methods, potentially integrating findings into the another EU project.
The project's ultimate goal to develop and validate a 6 kW SOFC system capable of operating with different fuels and across a range of temperatures is still in progress.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The FuelSOME project aims to creating multifuel Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) systems optimized for maritime applications, particularly for oceanic vessels. It investigates the viability of utilizing hydrogen, ammonia, and methanol as multifuels, with a focus on sourcing these fuels from renewable energy or waste streams to reduce carbon emissions. The project includes various activities, such as conceptual exploration of technology, evaluation of fuel pathways, development of stack-level technologies, and design of system architectures.
Significant achievements so far include the successful design and manufacture of stack modules capable of handling different fuels, validation of components under various fuel atmospheres, and the development of fuel reforming and cracking units to enhance fuel processing efficiency. Moreover, progress in assessing the socio-environmental-economic impacts of the project is ahead of schedule, with milestones being met without significant risks identified. Furthermore a publicly available report on potential technology concepts and fuel pathways for multifuel SOFC systems in the maritime sector was successfully finished highlighting varying costs and technological readiness, with ongoing research aiming to refine pathways and identify sustainable fuel production methods, potentially integrating findings into the another EU project.
The project's ultimate goal to develop and validate a 6 kW SOFC system capable of operating with different fuels and across a range of temperatures is still in progress.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell Stack:

The Solid Oxide Fuel Cell stack is at the core of the FuelSOME system and ultimately it is the perfromance of the stack that will determine the suitability of the system that will be engineered for the application intended. The short stack (with 15 cells) has undergone extensive tests under methanol and ammonia fuels, to investigate the performance of the stacks, detailed report on this is under preparation as part of deliverable 2.1 which is due for submission in the Q2 2024. Extensive testing of commercial stacks with methanol and ammonia as fuels hasn't been carried out before and this will help in not only understanding the degradation mechanisms that the stack will undergo when operating with such fuels but also in evaluating the stack's performance in terms of kW/m^3. This has got a two fold advantage - one the information gleaned from the degradation will help in dveelopment of better materials that will help in tolerating methanol and ammonia atmophere and two will lead to clear opeartional windows for the same stack to operate with different fuels (For e.g the temperature, pressure, and current density of operation of the stack for satisfactory performance with methnaol will differ from that of ammonia).


The multi-fuel reformer:

In order to reduce the system complexity and harmonize the system architecture, it is essential to have balance of plant components that are compatible to operate with different fuels. The fuel reformer or pre-processor is one such component. The need for the fuel refromer arises because, the fuels- methanol and ammonia cannot be directly fed into the stack and warrants a refromer to crack/reform it to an extent that is compatible with the stack. The consortium has already made significant progress in this component. Suitable catalysts, its loading, chemical reaction modelling when operating with different fuels, reactor design and simulation are some of the activities that have been completed. The multi-fuel reformer is now in the stage of advanced simulations and manufacturing and will also undergo tests in the laboratory for performance.

The consortium is confident in having a single component that can reform multiple fuels and this will be a game changer in the development of SOFC system architecture as the complexity of the system associated with fuel reforming will be minimised.


Harmonised system architecture:

The consortium has gone beyond the state of the art in designing a harmonised system architecture for the multi-fuel SOFC system. What this means is so far the fuel used has determined the need/requirements of the SOFC system architecture and if the fuel is changed then the architetcure also neeed to be changed. This has been the state of the art so far and is not practical when employing mulit-fuel energy generators in practical applications where the fuel of choice can be more than one. The consortium has designed, simulated and developed a harmonised system architecture for operation with ammonia, methanol (and also LNG). What this means is irrespective of the choice of fuel, the system will be able to perform satisfactorily, achieveing at least 50% system efficiency. The buil-up of the TRL 4 prototype is under way currently.