Samsung Electro-Mechanics forays into green hydrogen

Chang Duckhyun, President & CEO of Samsung Electro-Mechanics [Courtesy of Samsung Electro-Mechanics]

Samsung Electro-Mechanics began its foray into the green hydrogen market by independently developing a solid oxide electrolyzer cell (SOEC) technology to produce green hydrogen. The SOEC technology uses the expertise derived from multi-layer ceramic capacitors (MLCC), Samsung Electro-Mechanics’ primary product.

On Tuesday, the Korean company announced the successful development of the SOEC technology, which is capable of electrolyzing water into hydrogen at temperatures exceeding 700 degrees Celsius using ceramics, MLCC’s primary material, as the base. Hydrogen is viewed as the most suitable energy to replace fossil fuels in the net-zero era.

Hydrogen production’s economic viability depends on the efficiency of generating large quantities of hydrogen with minimal electricity. While there are various methods for hydrogen production, such as alkaline electrolysis (AEC) and polymer electrolyte membrane (PEM), SOEC stands out for having the highest power conversion efficiency, making it a noteworthy technology for next-generation hydrogen and fuel cell applications.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics leveraged its MLCC technology to develop the SOEC technology, with MLCC accumulating electricity by stacking layers at a thickness of 1/250 the size of a grain of rice. It is an essential component in electrical products, and typically 800 to 1,000 MLCCs are installed in a smartphone and about 20,000 in an electric vehicle.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics is the world’s second-largest producer of MLCCs, which are manufactured using ceramic materials. Although the production process for SOEC cells is similar to MLCC, a critical difference is the requirement for durability at 700 degrees Celsius.

Building upon the accumulated MLCC technology, Samsung Electro-Mechanics successfully achieved the highest current density, a crucial characteristic of SOEC technology, among commercially available products. The company aims to develop a prototype by 2025 and commence mass production by 2027.

Samsung Electro-Mechanics plans to extend this technology to the production of green hydrogen. Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced by electrolyzing water with electricity generated from renewable sources such as solar and wind power. The company is also considering establishing centers in regions abundant in renewable energy, such as the Middle East, to produce green hydrogen based on its SOEC technology.

SOEC technology can be diversly applied in the industry as the optimal device for producing green hydrogen and using hydrogen in steel mills during steel production, for example, can minimize carbon emissions. According to market analysis by QY Research, the global SOEC market is expected to grow from $1.28 billion in 2022 to $7.6 billion in 2029, with an average annual growth rate of 30 percent.