BioZEGHighly Efficient Standalone Green Production of Hydrogen and Electricity

A prototype plant that demonstrates the ZEG-technology (Zero Emission Gas technology), that is highly efficient co-production of hydrogen and electricity with CO2-capture has been built and installed at Hynor Lillestrom, located at the Akershus EnergyPark, just north of Oslo in Norway. The system consists of a 30 kWH2 Sorption Enhanced Reforming (SER) reactor system, a 20 kWel Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) module, and a high temperature heat exchange section, for close thermal integration between the SER and SOFC. The goal with the BioZEG-plant is to demonstrate conversion of biomethane to hydrogen and electricity at an overall system efficiency of 70%. The BioZEG-demonstration is a significant first step towards the realisation of the ZEG-technology, which aims to achieve an overall system efficiency of 80% in larger MW installations with integrated CO2 capture. The 20 kWel SOFC-module which was custom-made for the BioZEG-plant by CMR Prototech (NO), was built using CFY-stacks delivered by a European consortium led by Plansee (AT) and Fraunhofer IKTS (DE). A dual stack configuration was chosen as the baseline for the SOFC module, which consists of 12 blocks with 2 stacks each. The concept can easily be extended for further up-scaling. High temperature gas-to-gas heat exchangers, an integrated afterburner/pre-reformer, and other core components have also been developed within the project. The heat exchangers are essential for the close thermal integration between the SOFC module and the SER reactor system, making it possible to reach the targeted system efficiency.