DENSO Signs Manufacturing License Agreement for SOEC Cell Stacks with Ceres Power Holdings of the UK

TOKYO, Aug 6, 2024 - (JCN Newswire) - DENSO Corporation announced that it has signed a manufacturing license agreement with Ceres Power Holdings (CWR.L), a leading developer of solid oxide cell stack technology. DENSO aims to advance the early practical application of Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells (SOECs)(1) that produce hydrogen through water electrolysis.

Cell stacks are one of the components of SOECs, playing a role in separating steam into hydrogen and oxygen. Ceres has unique solid oxide technology joining metal and ceramic that leads to high-output performance. DENSO aims to realize mass production of high-quality cell stacks by utilizing Ceres’ technology with the company’s expertise of ceramic technology it has built in the automotive field, and to achieve the early practical application of SOECs with the company’s system technology including thermal management, system control and so forth.

Hydrogen is one of the leading next-generation energy sources to realize a carbon-neutral society, and its technology development is selected depending on the location, scale and application. DENSO will continue to promote various development of hydrogen utilization technologies through collaboration with partners both domestically and internationally, contributing to the creation of a carbon-neutral society.

(1) SOEC (Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell): A device that operates at high temperatures using a ceramic membrane as an electrolyte to electrolyze water vapor and produce hydrogen. While there are other methods for hydrogen production such as alkaline water electrolysis, which uses an alkaline liquid as the electrolyte, and PEM (Proton Exchange Membrane) water electrolysis, which uses a polymer membrane as the electrolyte, the SOEC has the feature of requiring less electrical energy for electrolysis compared to these methods.