Built entirely from ceramics using 3D printing, the design slashes weight, boosts resilience, and redefines what fuel cells can achieve.
Today’s aircraft rely almost exclusively on jet fuel because alternatives are either too heavy or inefficient. For perspective, replacing a jet’s 70 tons of kerosene with lithium-ion batteries would increase its weight to 3,500 tons—making flight impossible. Traditional fuel cells face similar hurdles: their flat stacks and heavy metal components mean over 75% of their mass is non-active hardware.
The study details how Technical University of Denmark (DTU) researchers have built a fully ceramic solid oxide cell (SOC) using a gyroidal 3D-printed architecture. The resulting design—dubbed the Monolithic Gyroidal Solid Oxide Cell or simply The Monolith—achieves more than one watt per gram, a milestone in energy density for electrochemical devices. That figure meets the specific power requirements for aerospace, something conventional batteries and fuel cells have consistently failed to deliver.
The new design flips that equation. By exploiting triply periodic minimal surfaces (TPMS)—structures also found in butterfly wings and advanced heat exchangers—the team optimized both surface area and weight. The result is not only lightweight but also robust, with improved gas flow, heat distribution, and mechanical stability. In electrolysis mode, the cells produced hydrogen at nearly ten times the rate of conventional designs.
Durability is another advantage. Tested under harsh conditions, including 100°C temperature swings and repeated cycling between power generation and electrolysis, the monolithic cells showed no signs of cracking or delamination. This resilience could prove critical for missions like NASA’s Mars Oxygen ISRU Experiment, where cutting system weight from six tons to under a ton would dramatically reduce launch costs.
Just as significant is the simplified manufacturing process. Unlike traditional SOC stacks that require dozens of steps and multiple degrading materials, the team’s ceramic design can be printed in five steps, with no seals or metals required. Researchers believe further refinements—such as thinner electrolytes and cheaper current collectors—could push performance even higher. If scalable, this innovation could finally open the door to green, high-performance fuel cells for aerospace and beyond.
