Press Release

Doosan Fuel Cell's Solid Oxide Fuel Cell (SOFC) business for maritime application is progressing well.

▲The concept image of the SOFC for ships being developed by Doosan Fuel Cell

Doosan Fuel Cell said on Monday that its cell stack, a core components of the marine SOFC under development with HyAxiom, have passed the environmental test of DNV, one of the world's top three classification associations. It is the world's first SOFC fuel cell to pass a ship environment test.

In general, electric and electronic equipment installed on vessels must pass extreme environmental test rather than actual operating conditions such as temperature, humidity, vibration, gradient, and electromagnetic waves.

Doosan Fuel Cell will complete the test and certification of remaining parts and SOFC within this year, supply SOFC for ships, and conduct full-scale demonstration.

Doosan Fuel Cell signed an agreement with Shell, a global leader in energy and petrochemicals, HD Korea Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering, an intermediate holding company in the shipbuilding sector of HD Hyundai Group, and HyAxiom, a Doosan subsidiary, in October 2022. Companies participating in the consortium schedule to use 600 kW SOFC for marine application as auxiliary power units (APUs) to validate reliability and efficiency of SOFC for the application by operating demonstration ships on actual routes for a year.

In July last year, the International Maritime Organization (IMO) approved an amendment of its greenhouse gas emissions goal by cutting100% GHG compared to 2008 by 2050. Shipping industry is not an exception for reducing GHG. Considering the economic economics of carbon reduction and fuel reduction, the SOFC for ships, Doosan Fuel Cell’s SOFC which will be commercialized in the near future, is expected to be a competitive option in the market.

"Doosan Fuel Cell's SOFC has a longer life thanks to its lower operating temperature than other companies and has fundamental strengths in terms of efficiency compared to existing internal combustion engines," a Doosan Fuel Cell official says. "The environmental test result has shown that Doosan Fuel Cell's SOFC is suitable for ships, and it is also meaningful since the result proves our product doesn’t sacrifice output even in harsher conditions."

Doosan Fuel Cell is manufacturing and integrating solid oxide fuel cell technology in collaboration with Ceres, a leading developer of clean energy technology. Doosan Fuel Cell has built a 50MW plant in Saemangeum Industrial Complex and is preparing a mass manufacturing system to complete the development and demonstration of stationary SOFC by 2024, and enter the market in earnest from 2025.