THIS PROJECT INVOLVES RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT AIMED AT IMPROVING PERFORMANCE AND REDUCING MANUFACTURING COST OF NEXCERIS’ HIGH TEMPERATURE ELECTROLYSIS (HTE) CELLS AND STACKS. CELL-LEVEL OBJECTIVES ARE TO DEMONSTRATE CELL DESIGN, ELECTRODE MATERIALS SELECTION AND MANUFACTURING METHODS TO REDUCE CELL COST BY AT LEAST 15 PERCENT, WHILE IMPROVING PERFORMANCE TO ENABLE STACK OPERATION AT 1.285 VOLTS AT 1.0 A/CM2. CELLS WILL BE SCALED UP TO 482 CM2 ACTIVE AREA. STACK-LEVEL OBJECTIVES ARE TO IMPLEMENT LOWER COST AND HIGHER PERFORMANCE CELLS AND REDUCE COST OF STACK MANUFACTURING, WITH THE GOALS OF ACHIEVING A STACK COST OF LESS THAN $150 PER KW AND DEFINING A PATH TO A STACK COST OF LESS THAN $100 PER KW. STACK TESTING WORK ON THIS PROJECT AIMS TO DEMONSTRATE TARGETED PERFORMANCE IN LARGE STACKS (228 CM2 ACTIVE AREA, 24-48 CELLS) AND TO DEMONSTRATE A STEADY-STATE DEGRADATION RATE OF LESS THAN 10 ΜV/HOUR OVER AT LEAST 3000 HOURS OF SUB-SCALE STACK TESTING. A FINAL GOAL OF THIS PROJECT IS TO VALIDATE THE MANUFACTURING COST REDUCTIONS AND STACK PERFORMANCE ENHANCEMENTS VIA THIRD-PARTY ANALYSES AND STACK TESTING.