ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Energy Res.
Sec. Sustainable Energy Systems
Volume 13 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fenrg.2025.1530637
This article is part of the Research TopicExport and import of electrolytic hydrogen using renewable energy and subsequent synthetic fuels between regions – assessment of technology routes, potentials, and strategiesView all 6 articles
Solar-heat-assisted Hydrogen Production with Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cells for Japan
Provisionally accepted
- 1Research Institute for Energy Conservation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan
- 2German Aerospace Center (DLR), Cologne, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
- 3Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, RWTH Aachen University, Aachen, North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany
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Japan and other industrialized countries rely on the import of green hydrogen, as they do not have the resources to cover their own demand. In contrast, other countries, e.g. Australia, have the potential to produce hydrogen and its derivatives using wind and solar energy. The use of the latter can produce electrical energy with photovoltaic or thermal energy by concentrating the solar irradiation. Thus, thermal and electrical energy can be used in a solid oxide electrolysis process for the low-cost hydrogen production. The operation of a solid oxide electrolysis cellstack (SOEC) with solar energy integration is experimentally investigated and with a validated simulation model further analyzed. Furthermore, a techno-economic assessment is conducted to identify the hydrogen production costs including the liquefaction and transport from Australia to Japan. High conversion efficiencies and low-cost SOEC will lead to production costs below 4 USD/kg.
Keywords: Hydrogen production, Solid Oxide Electrolysis Cell (SOEC), Concentrated solar energy (CSE), Techno economic analysis, Hydrogen transportation
Received: 19 Nov 2024; Accepted: 16 Jul 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Tanaka, Roeder and Monnerie. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Yohei Tanaka, Research Institute for Energy Conservation, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), Tsukuba, 305-8564, Ibaraki, Japan
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