Elcogen announces collaboration agreement with the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research (TNO) to develop advanced SOE technology

Tallinn, Estonia: Elcogen, a leading European manufacturer of technology that enables delivery of efficient, affordable green hydrogen and emission-free electricity, is pleased to announce it has recently initiated a collaboration agreement under the Important Projects of Common European Interest scheme (“IPCEI”) with the Dutch Organization for Applied Scientific Research (“TNO”) to develop advanced SOE technology for future market demands.

The primary objective of the partnership is to drive innovation within important projects of common European interest, with the collective aim to accelerate the energy transition. With the growing number of offshore wind farms, green renewable energy production via electrolysis becomes ever more critical. Elcogen’s optimised stack technology promises increased profitability, not only reducing CO2 emissions but also providing a cost-effective alternative to traditional fossil fuels.

Elcogen, with its leading development and manufacture of proprietary core components deployed in the solid oxide electrolyser fuel cell systems, and TNO, with leading expertise in solid oxide electrolyser technology, have been working alongside one another for more than a decade across projects such as NewSOC, CleanHyPro, OUTFOX and PressHyous under the Horizon Europe framework and within the framework of the VoltaChem shared innovation program.

TNO’s ongoing partnership with Elcogen further highlights the joint commitment to rapidly advancing clean energy solutions. Within this new collaboration, key performance indicators (“KPIs”) have been formulated in relation to the future of solid oxide stack efficiency, durability, scalability and overall impact.

Solid oxide electrolysis stands out from other technologies due to its ability to operate at significantly high temperatures while enabling around 20-30% higher efficiency when compared to low-temperature electrolysers. Solid oxide core components also have the ability to produce hydrogen from renewable electricity as well as generate renewable energy (power and heat in fuel cell mode) from hydrogen and other fuels within an integrated setup.

Enn Õunpuu, CEO of Elcogen: “Our collaboration with TNO and with ECN previously has been central to Elcogen’s development. Our long-standing relationship has jointly established several key improvements in solid oxide technology, and I expect that this new collaboration agreement will expand solid oxide stack technology into a new era.”

Richard Braal, Division Director TNO EMT Industry: “TNO has a strong dedication to tackle global warming. We need to speed-up, accelerate innovation and the deployment of new technology. In our collaboration with Elcogen, we will deploy our in-depth knowledge, experience and facilities in the field of water electrolysis and specifically solid oxide technology in order to support Elcogen in achieving their ambition. This is the initiation of a close collaboration in order to accelerate the hydrogen economy.”

Martijn de Graaff, Program Director VoltaChem: “Together with our business community, we aim for accelerated innovation and implementation of Power-2-X technologies and value chains in order to reduce the CO2 footprint of hydrogen and chemicals production. Solid Oxide Electrolysis is an important technology building block in this ambition, especially because it can be efficiently integrated in the high-temperature process industry. It’s great to see a company like Elcogen taking the next step in developing its technology towards larger scale together with VoltaChem’s initiating partner TNO.”

About Elcogen

Founded in 2001, Elcogen is a manufacturer of clean energy technology that delivers affordable green hydrogen and emission-free electricity. We are a European business with a proud Estonian heritage and a global customer network delivering flexible core solid oxide technology. Elcogen has its registered office in the UK, and manufacturing facilities in Estonia and Finland that have served 160 customers in 30 countries.

Elcogen develops and supplies the technology that sits at the heart of energy security and transition away from fossil fuels. We are focused on driving net-zero ambitions forward with a core, reversible technology that converts fuel sources into emission-free energy and emission-free energy into green hydrogen. Our solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) and solid oxide electrolyser cell (SOEC) technology offers an efficient solution to green hydrogen production, reducing commercial costs so customers can deliver affordable energy solutions to meet net-zero targets.

About TNO

TNO is an independent research organisation, established by Dutch law as legal public entity, connecting people and knowledge to create innovations that boost the sustainable competitive strength of industry and well-being of society. TNO has established VoltaChem. Through this program, we work closely together with international industry and academia accelerating development and implementation of industrial electrification and more specifically electrosynthesis technology, electrochemical process development, including scouting, techno-economics, lifecycle assessment and scale-up of electrochemical reactions, reactors and related downstream processing technologies.

TNO, has thorough knowledge in the development of solid oxide stack design based on the decades-long hands-on experience of the SOE group members with respect to both Solid Oxide Cell manufacturing and testing. In addition, TNO established a solid oxide stack testing infrastructure (Faraday lab) and has gained extensive knowledge on stack development through its VoltaChem Shared Innovation Program.