Fuel cells are considered as a promising technology for the 21st century energy supply. Differently to conventional thermoelectricity generation systems in fuel cells the chemical energy stored in the reactands (basically oxygen and hydrogen) is directly transformed into electric energy without any intermediate transformation steps.

The characteristic features of the solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) compared to other types of fuel cells are the utilization of a solid electrolyte (e.g. doped zirconia) and the very high operation temperature of approximately 950°C, which turns out the SOFC to be an ideal candidate for decentralised thermoelectricity generation.

Worldwide famous companies work on this new environmentially beneficial technology for energy transformation coupled with waste heat recovery, leading to an extraordinary high electrical and thermal efficiency. PLANSEE contributes to the realization of this technology with a specifically developed Cr-based alloy for so called SOFC interconnectors (bipolar plates/current collectors).