Overall
- Language
- English
- Conflict of Interest
- In relation to this article, we declare that there is no conflict of interest.
- Publication history
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Received June 2, 2025
Revised September 28, 2025
Accepted October 6, 2025
Available online January 26, 2026
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This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/bync/3.0) which permits
unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Most Cited
Techno‑economic Assessment of Advanced SOEC Systems for Hydrogen Production in South Korea: Bridging System Design and Regional Market Realities
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11814-025-00577-z
Abstract
Solid oxide electrolysis cells (SOECs) promise high-efficiency hydrogen production but face two key barriers to large-scale
deployment: intensive energy demand and high capital costs of system. These challenges are further compounded by the
lack of deployment-oriented techno-economic assessments (TEAs), which limits realistic feasibility evaluation. This study
introduces a deployment-oriented TEA framework that addresses these barriers by (i) benchmarking three configurations,
i.e., non-integrated (Case A), internally integrated (Case B), and fully integrated with external solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC)
system coupling (Case C); (ii) embedding real energy-economic data of South Korea; and (iii) applying a multi-dimensional
assessment that spans electricity source variation, inflation, tax, relocation to Japan and China, and sensitivity to key cost
parameters. According to the results, heat integration benchmarking improved system energy efficiency from 47.81 (Case
A) to 75.65% (Case C). These performance gains translated into a 23% reduction in hydrogen production costs, with the
equal energy mix (EEM)-based average levelized cost of hydrogen (LCOH) ranging from 9.84 to 12.81 $/kg using South
Korea’s energy-economic data. Beyond this baseline, the multi-dimensional assessment confirmed electricity source as the
dominant cost driver, with nuclear and combined-cycle gas turbine (CCGT) yielding the lowest LCOH, while incorporating
real inflation and taxation significantly increased costs, underscores the importance of region-specific modeling. Extending
the analysis to Japan and China revealed that SOEC-based LCOH is not solely design-driven but largely market-dependent,
shaped by location, local energy mixes, and economics. Finally, optimization-based multi-variable sensitivity assessment
showed that under favorable conditions, LCOH could fall below $4/kg. Collectively, these results provide deployment-relevant
insights, emphasizing the decisive roles of heat integration, electricity structure, and regional economics in achieving scalable
and competitive SOEC-based green hydrogen.
