CHEN Ting, WANG Shaorong

(Shanghai Institute of Ceramics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Shanghai 200050, China)

Abstract: Renewable energy resources have attracted great interests in recent years. Hydrogen is a renewable energy source. Of all the methods of producing hydrogen, water electrolysis is probably the cleanest when it is combined with a renewable energy source to produce the electricity. Compared with the conventional low temperature water electrolysis process, which consumes a huge amount of electrical energy, high temperature steam electrolysis using solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOEC) can generate hydrogen with high efficiency. In this paper, the cell structure, material selection and working principal of SOEC for water electrolysis are introduced. The recent developments on high temperature SOEC for water electrolysis are also reviewed. The improvement on recycle stability and development of novel materials for increasing the electrolysis efficiency of SOEC are discussed as well.

Key words:  solid oxide cell; oxygen electrode; hydrogen production rate; stability