Elcogen and Magnex co-operate on SOFC commercialisation

Above: Elcogen SOFC components

The agreement, which has an expected duration of three years, builds on more than seven years of close co-operation between the two companies.

Magnex is developing a 1 kW SOFC cell stack, a 250 W SOFC portable system and a 1-5 kW SOFC combined heat and power (CHP) system fuelled by biogas/ethanol. The company is targeting Japanese as well as Korean markets, taking advantage of Elcogen’s low operating temperature technology, allowing the use of low-cost materials and cost- efficient system design. Within three years Magnex is targeting sales of more than 3000 units of its SOFC products, to meet an expected SOFC cell demand of 5 MW.

Elcogen is in the process of delivering mass produced SOFC and SOEC (solid oxide electrolyser cells). Starting from 2021/22 it plans to mass produce approximately 2 million cells per year, amounting to an electrical installed capacity of around 50 MW. Elcogen’s SOFC/ SOEC technology converts a range of fuels, mainly hydrogen and biogas, into electrical energy with a high electrical efficiency.

Founded in 2001, Elcogen is based in Estonia. Magnex, founded in 1987, started out as a developer of magnetic head technology. In 2005 the company entered the solid oxide fuel cell business, with the development of an SOFC stack, and was also involved in the design, production and distribution of fuel cell materials (interconnectors, current collectors, coatings, sealing materials, ceramic springs, etc). In 2017 Magnex installed its first demo 1 kW bio-gas fuelled SOFC system, in Vietnam (in co-operation with JST/JICA/ Kyushu University). In 2020 the company reported an SOFC electrical efficiency of 62.5% (hot module output).