KSOE and partners to work on hydrogen and fuel cells

January 10, 2023, by Aida Čučuk

Korea Shipbuilding and Offshore Engineering (KSOE), a research-oriented intermediate holding company of the Hyundai Heavy Industry (HHI) Group, Germany’s Fraunhofer Institute for Ceramic Technologies and Systems (IKTS), and European solid oxide systems (SOC) producer ELCOGEN have agreed to collaborate in the fields of hydrogen and fuel/electrolysis cells.

The parties signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in Las Vegas, US, on January 8, 2023.

“We are very happy that we can contribute our world-leading R&D competencies in SOFC and SOE technology to this outstanding partnership with KSOE and Elcogen. This is another huge step in fulfilling our mission to transfer technology for a sustainable and carbon-free energy future,” said Alexander Michaelis, Institute Director of Fraunhofer IKTS.

Sung-Joon Kim, Chief Technical Officer of KSOE said that at a time the shipbuilding and offshore industries are moving into a zero CO2 era, the collaboration between KSOE, Fraunhofer IKTS, and ELCOGEN is highly significant.

Enn Õunpuu, CEO of Elcogen, said: “SOFC technology has the potential to make an important contribution to the decarbonisation of the marine sector. The agreement with KSOE and Fraunhofer IKTS shows that world-class shipbuilders and system integrators share this view.”

IKTS said that, so far, it has developed various stack designs, constructed them as prototypes, and tested them for their suitability and for different applications.

Together with partners, the institute said it develops decentralised energy supply systems on this basis – from micro-CHP systems to systems with more than 20 kW power.

For this purpose, it develops SOC stacks, reformers, and afterburners at IKTS, and in addition, work is being done on cost-efficient and automatable manufacturing processes for stack and system production.

KSOE is a company whose research includes environmentally friendly marine propulsion systems and innovative solutions for the hydrogen value chain (production, transportation, supply).

ELCOGEN is a solid oxide systems producer that delivers affordable green hydrogen (SOFC) and zero-emission electricity (SOEC).