ECO2Fuel has reportedly designed a 50kW electrolyser stack capable of converting carbon into green e-fuels for industries that struggle to electrify or switch to hydrogen.
The process combines CO2 and water in an electrolyser using renewable energy sources to trigger an electrochemical reaction to produce valuable fuels and chemicals, without the use of hydrogen.
The German start-up assembled the stack at an electrolyser testing VITO site in Belgium and their next aim is to test it at a 1MW scale at an RWE site in Germany. They expect to do this by 2026, and the team are currently conducting extensive testing to ensure the system’s efficiency.
Stack prototype © ECO2Fuel
ECO2Fuel, funded by the EU under the Horizon Europe programme, has said the electrolyser improves efficiencies compared to traditional electrolysers, reduces costs and can directly use renewable energy sources.
“We are very proud to have developed one of the world’s large-scale CO₂ electrolysers – with a total active area of 3.75 m²,” said Faria Huq, Project Coordinator at DLR. “The journey from an intricate design to meticulous assembly of the stack has been challenging but rewarding at the same time.”
The 50kW stack uses 25 cells each with a 1500cm2 surface area, matching that of a state-of-the-art PEM electrolyser. The design results in a total active area of 3.75m2 which is significantly larger than most current pressurised CO2 electrolysis stacks, essentially to achieve greater efficiency and scalability.
Joost Helsen, Project Manager at VITO, explained, “The reason for choosing this size of the stack was mainly the possibility to easily scale this stack further to 1MW without changing the single cell design.
“Already now several challenges were encountered and dealt with, such as sealing of the stack at higher pressures, gas and liquid flow management, structural integrity of the stack components, etc.”
Notable partners that support ECO2Fuel include HyGear, RWE, META Group, VITO and the Technical University of Denmark.
