Sunfire: industrial alkaline or solid oxide electrolyzers

Sunfire is a German company developing alkaline or solid oxide industrial electrolyzers producingpure hydrogen orsyngas. It has raised over 200 million euros.

Sunfire industrial electrolyzers

Sunfire offers three models ofelectrolyzer, with two technologies and two types of production: alkaline electrolysis and solid oxide electrolysis, the latter capable of producing dihydrogen or syngas.

Alkaline electrolysis: Sunfire-Hylink alkaline

The “Sunfire-Hylink alkaline” is an alkaline electrolyzer producing pure hydrogen. It can produce 2165Nm3/h, or 195kg/h of dihydrogen at 30 bar and 99.8% purity. It could produce between 25 and 100% capacity. Its power consumption is between 4.46 and 4.65kWh per Nm3 produced. It requires an ambient temperature of between 5 and 40°C.

Solid oxide electrolyzers

There are two models of solid oxide electrolyzer: one that produces pure hydrogen(Sunfire-Hylink SOEC) and the other syngas(Sunfire-Synlink SOEC). Both produce 750Nm3 per hour and use steam arriving at 150-200°C and 3.5-5.5 bar. They can operate from 5 to 100% capacity, with a “hot idle ramp time” of less than 10 minutes. They require an ambient temperature of between -20 and 40°C.

  • Sunfire-Hylink SOEC produces dihydrogen from steam. Consumption is 3.6kWh/Nm3. The hydrogen produced is 99.99% pure.
  • Sunfire-Synlink SOEC uses steam and CO2 to produce syngas composed of between 20% and 60% dihydrogen, which will be used to produce synthetic fuels (e-fuels) or chemicals. Its power output is 2.89MW.

Sunfire history and financing

History of Sunfire

Sunfire is a German startup founded in 2010 by Nils Aldag, Christian von Olshausen and Carl Berninghausen. The company grew by absorbing several other companies:

  • Staxera GMBH, a solid oxide fuel cell production company in 2011.
  • New Enerday GMBH, a fuel cell production company
  • IHT, a 70-year-old producer of alkaline electrolyzers, in 2020
  • Solingen branch of electroplating company MTV NT, in 2021

Sunfire began prototyping a solid oxide electrolyzer in 2012, a year after absorbing Staxera. The company opened a demonstrator plant for the production of e-fuels (= fuels produced from electricity) in 2014 and marketed its first generation of SOEC electrolyzers. It is participating in the German “Power-to-X” project, in its first (2016) and second (2019) phases. By 2020, Sunfire and 3 other companies (Climeworks, SMS group and Valinor) have agreed to set up an industrial-scale plant to convert electricity into e-fuels (“Power-to-liquids”): “Norsk E-Fuel. The company would employ 500 people in Germany and Switzerland.(source) On March 22, 2022, they announced that they would be supplying electrolyzers for a “Power-to-X” plant in Finland.

Sunfire’s financing rounds

Sunfire has raised funds on several occasions:

  • It reportedly raised €6M on November 29, 2012 in a Series B round involving TotalEnergies Ventures, Electranova Capital and Bilfinger Venture Capital, among others.
  • It reportedly raised €8M in 2014 in a Series B round involving TotalEnergies Ventures, Electranova Capital and Bilfinger Venture Capital.
  • It would have raised a Series C round on November 23, 2015 involving TotalEnergies Ventures, Electranova Capital and Inven Capital; then a second Series C (?) round, announced on January 7, 2019, in which it would have raised €25M.
  • Neste reportedly invested in Sunfire on March 6, 2020. The two companies appear to cooperate directly thereafter.
  • It raised €109M on October 18, 2021 in a Series D round led by Lightrock as well as Planet First Partners and bringing Carbon Direct Capital Management and HydrogenOne Capital.
  • It raised €86M on May 24, 2022 in a Series D2 round involving Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners (CIP) and Blue Earth Capital.

FAQ

How much money has Sunfire raised?

Sunfire has raised a total of €234 million.

What does “Power-to-X” mean?

“Power-to-X” refers to projects that transform electricity into something else. This can be gas, such as hydrogen, or liquid. The process is generally based on electrolysis.