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Boschs new solid oxide fuel cell prototype has an electrical efficiency of more than 60% and an overall efficiency of more than 85%. In addition, it has a target power of 10 kW and can produce up to 3 kW of thermal energy. The German company Bosch has developed a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) system for commercial and industrial applications and is preparing to ramp up production in 2024. The SOFC system can run on natural gas, biomethane, hydrogen or different mixtures, with an electrical efficiency of more than 60% and an overall efficiency of more than 85%. Our SOFC system is primarily used to produce electrical power, but can also produce thermal energy at temperature levels that can be used for heating or cooling, said Marcus Spickermann, senior vice president of solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC) at Bosch, to pv magazine . We are currently carrying out several pilot projects, and we are preparing for market entry in 2024, when we will start with an annual production volume of 200 MW per year. The current prototype machines have a target power of 10 kW of electrical supply. They also produce up to 3 kW of thermal energy. We are currently planning to increase the capacity of the system, as our plan is to offer the device mainly in the commercial and industrial segment, Spickermann said. SOFC modular units can be combined in a cascade or cluster to form a decentralized power supply system and are designed as connected devices that are part of the Internet of Things. In the future, it will be possible to connect SOFC clusters to virtual power plants reaching high power capacities in the megawatt range. “When these machines are connected to each other, and the power grid fails, their resilience has a value that many investors are happy to acknowledge,” Wayne-Daniel Kern, vice president of SOFC at Bosch, told pv magazine . The fuel cell unit also produces thermal energy at temperature levels that can be used for heating or cooling. “The heat coming out of the system has a temperature of about 200 degrees Celsius, an optimal level to reuse it to heat buildings or convert it back to cooling for data center use cases,” Kern said. This heat can be an efficient additional supply to the existing heat supply system in a building. The machines are primarily intended to produce electricity, but harnessing the heat supply helps reduce ownership costs.” When commercial production launches, the product may have a payback period of five to six years, so at that point it will be very attractive, Kern said. Bosch intends to produce the fuel cell units on a large scale. Were not targeting a niche market, were a mass production company, Kern said. We know how to industrialize and produce thousands of machines. In Germany, Bosch already operates some 50 SOFC pilot installations at its own sites in Bamberg, Homburg, Renningen, Salzgitter, Schwieberdingen, Stuttgart-Feuerbach and Wernau. Its first pilots are running at customer facilities such as Stadtwerke Bamberg. This SOFC unit supplies power to the surroundings and the heat is used in a nearby bakery. In preparation for the production ramp-up in 2024, further pilot projects will be carried out to demonstrate the capabilities of the SOFC units. The company will develop a series of products that meet customer requirements in different usage scenarios, such as buildings, industrial applications, distributed power supply systems (microgrids) and data centers. |
