A hydrogen fuel cell with the potential ability to power a town with clean energy has been honoured with the UK’s top engineering innovation prize. The company Ceres Power was named the winner of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s MacRobert Award. Shortlisting for the award was reported by Digital Journal during June 2023.
It is hoped that the firm’s ground-breaking fuel cell technology will hold the key to solving the climate crisis.
Ceres’ clean energy technology includes fuel cells for power generation and electrolysers for green hydrogen. The solid oxide cell is based on common low-cost materials, combined with an innovative deposition technique and a highly differentiated stack technology.
This technology means that just one cell is enough to light a room; and a domestic microwave-sized block of cells could harness enough power to supply half a million homes.
The runner-up prizes went to an AI forecasting technology and an advanced graphene sensor that is changing the way semiconductors work
The Academy’s Royal Fellow, HRH The Princess Royal, presented the winning team behind the Ceres SteelCell with the MacRobert Award gold medal and a £50,000 prize at the Royal Academy of Engineering Awards Dinner during July 2023.
Ceres has a proprietary technology that is described as “truly reversible.” Running in one direction it can use multiple fuels to generate power highly efficiently when and where it is needed. Run in reverse, it generates green hydrogen at high efficiencies and low cost. The fuel cells also have the potential to power space missions due to the lightness and efficiency.
The company has pioneered the use of commonly found materials: a gadolinium-doped ceria ceramic membrane as an electrolyte that operates at temperatures in the range of 500–600C. This is a so-termed ‘Goldilocks’ temperature based on performance, fuel flexibility, cost and robustness.
As the winners, Ceres joins an illustrious list of previous MacRobert Award winners: From the CT scanner to the first television graphics system and the Raspberry Pi mini-computer. The 2022 winner, Quanta Dialysis Technologies, has made portable, high-performance dialysis a reality.
Going forwards, Ceres’ electrochemical technologies and licensing model have enabled it to establish partnerships with companies such as Bosch, Doosan, and Weichai, to deliver systems and products at scale and pace. Such innovations are important for countries to deliver on their net zero commitments.
