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2016
Conference Paper
Titel
Status of SOFC/SOEC stack and system development and commercialization activities at Fraunhofer IKTS
Abstract
Since the mid-1990's, Fraunhofer IKTS is developing SOFC on cell, stack and system level, conducting various R&D and engineering projectsfunded by public bodies, industrial customers and Fraunhofer-internal programs. According to intrinsic objectives of the Fraunhofer business model, matured technical solutions are transferred to practical applications and commercial products, following different commercialization strategies, e.g. contract research, technology licensing and corporate spin-offs. Some of today's well establishedSOFC products - a subset of Kerafol's MEAs and glass tapes, sunfire's SOFC stacks and Vaillant's SOFC micro-CHP systems to name here - date back to R&D collaborations with IKTS in the 2000s. Meanwhile, IKTS has evolved into one of the major hubs for SOFC technology, worldwide. Out of a long-term relationship with Plansee SE, the CFY stack technology emerged as a robust and reliable standard solution for SOFC systems in arbitrary applications. In 2015, the company MPower GmbH was formed for the commercial distribution and series manufacturing of CFY stacks. Backed by private investment, IKTS and MPower are going to develop a commercial stack production and deployment facility in the next three years. On system level, one of the major activities since 2008 was the development of the eneramic® system, a portable, LPG-fueled 100 W SOFC power generator for off-grid applications. The program was funded by the Fraunhofer Future Foundation, and led to the foundation of the company Ceragen GmbH in 2015. The spin-off company will further promote the product development and commercial deployment of eneramic® systems, with continued R&D and engineering support by IKTS. Apart from the eneramic® development, several other projects for application-specific SOFC system solutions have been initiated, e.g. a 1 kW SOFC/battery-hybrid system for the Indian market, contracted by h2e PowerSystems. In the status presentation, the major technical outcomesof recent SOFC and SOEC development activities at IKTS will be outlined together with a brief description of ongoing commercialization activities and business opportunities, supported by IKTS.
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