Clean energy innovators Ceres Power Holdings have signed up with chemical giant Linde Engineering & industrial leviathan Bosch to pilot a 1 MW green hydrogen demonstrator.
With its partners, the Horsham-based firm seeks to assess commercial viability of an industrial scale deployment of its solid oxide electrolysis (SOEC) technology. Ceres has committed £100 million to its own breakthrough.
The companies plan a two-year demonstration starting next year located at a Bosch site in Stuttgart. The German engineer has been gradually building to 18% its ownership stake in the British firm.
The trial’s objective will be to assess the commercial feasibility of Ceres SOEC technology’s towards making low-cost green hydrogen at scale. The gas is at the centre of technologists’ hopes to decarbonise difficult industrial sectors such as cement and process-industries.
Ceres’s first 100kW electrolyser module is currently on test. Promising first results give the partners confidence that the British technology can electrolyse hydrogen at an energy efficiency of less than 40kWh per kilogramme, around 25% better than prevailing lower temperature electrolysers.
Linde Engineering – whose 150 year heritage includes Carl von Linde, inventor of the refrigerator – has world-leading capabilities in industrial process engineering of chemical plants. Bosch contributes unrivalled expertise in product industrialisation and mass manufacturing. Together the companies aim to evaluate SOEC technology for large scale industrial applications.
The SOEC programme builds on Bosch’s experience of Ceres’ solid oxide fuel technology (SOFC) and the technology shares the same material sets, manufacturing process, equipment, and stack design.
Ceres’ CEO Phil Caldwell commented: “Our vision is to set a new industry standard for solid oxide electrolysers, leading to widespread adoption in industrial applications.
He went on: “By combining Ceres’ unique technology, Bosch’s strength in scaled manufacturing and Linde Engineering’s solid expertise hydrogen production, processing, distribution and storage, we will establish a partnership that can make our technology even more competitive and prepare it for mass market adoption at scale.”
The news pushed Ceres’ share price 2.8% higher in early AIM 50 trading this morning.
