From Pilot Project to Industrial Volume Production – How ASYS Is Supporting Elcogen in Its Next Scaling Step
With customized, modular automation solutions, the transition from manual pilot production to industrial-scale manufacturing was successfully realized, creating the foundation for high process stability, consistent quality, and the successful market ramp-up of SOFC/SOEC technology.
Elcogen is a European technology pioneer in highly efficient solid oxide cells and stacks. Since its founding in 2001, the company has been working to close a key gap in the energy transition: the efficient conversion of electricity and gas into clean energy. Under the guiding principle “Bridging the Energy Transition,” Elcogen develops technologies that make green hydrogen, low-emission electricity, and industrial decarbonization economically viable.
Headquartered in Tallinn, Estonia, Elcogen combines over two decades of materials and process expertise with a clear industrial focus. The challenge in recent years has been less about the technology itself—and more about scaling it up to an industrial level.
The Starting Point: Growth Meets the Limits of Existing Processes
Until now, production took place in a pilot environment with a high proportion of manual steps. This was sufficient for development and early customer projects. But it was no longer enough for market ramp-up.
“As we grew, the manual approach became increasingly inefficient and led to bottlenecks in throughput and consistency,” Elcogen describes the situation.
The goal with the new ELCO I plant was therefore not only to create more capacity but to establish industrial, reproducible, and globally scalable manufacturing—as a blueprint for future sites.
The Task: Automate, Scale, Secure
ELCO I was designed from the outset as a modular, expandable plant. The production area of approximately 14,000 m² allows for a step-by-step scaling of the lines currently installed up to several hundred megawatts of SOFC/SOEC capacity. At the same time, quality, process stability, and the protection of the sensitive ceramic substrates had to be guaranteed at all times.
Beyond simply increasing capacity, the goal was a fundamental shift: moving away from batch processes toward continuous, automated production—economical, sustainable, and future-proof.
The Solution: Customized Modularity from ASYS/EKRA
For this transformation, Elcogen chose the ASYS Group, including EKRA, as its technology and solution partner. The decisive factor was not only technical expertise, but above all the willingness to adapt standard solutions specifically to Elcogen’s requirements.
“ASYS was willing to develop a line fully tailored to our needs. This openness to a new, customized solution was decisive for us,” said Elcogen.
Today, several highly automated printing and assembly lines from ASYS/EKRA are in operation. The lines are fully enclosed, protecting the process from environmental influences and eliminating manual intervention. High-speed systems enable up to ten times higher throughput compared to pilot production. The lead time for cell production has been reduced from several weeks to just a few days.
Another key component is the integrated AI-based 2D inspection and inline process control, which helps Elcogen ensure long-term quality and use resources efficiently.
Collaboration on Equal Footing – Even When Things Get Complex
A project of this magnitude naturally brings challenges. The high degree of customization of the systems led to a longer ramp-up period and required readjustments, for example regarding line stability or optical inspection.
However, the nature of the collaboration was decisive:
“ASYS responded very quickly, often provided remote support, and worked closely with us to solve problems efficiently,” reports Elcogen.
The complete system assembly and testing in Germany prior to delivery to Tallinn left a particularly positive impression—an approach that reduced risks and built trust.
“Innovative, extremely flexible, and exceptionally responsive” – that’s how Elcogen sums up the collaboration with ASYS in a single sentence.
The Result: A Factory Serving as a Bridge to the Energy Transition
With ELCO I, Elcogen has reached a decisive milestone. Production capacity has been massively increased, quality remains consistently high, and the processes are stable, clean, and reproducible. At the same time, the plant is ready for future expansion phases—up to several hundred megawatts of capacity.
In this way, ELCO I delivers exactly what Elcogen stands for: a bridge between technological innovation and the industrial implementation of the energy transition.
Looking Ahead
Elcogen is already working on the next optimizations, such as further automating the sintering process and component handling. ASYS will continue to support this journey as a partner in the future.
We would like to sincerely thank Elcogen for their trust, openness, and constructive collaboration. We look forward to continuing this success story together in the coming years – and making a further contribution to the industrial implementation of the energy transition.
Photo Credit
The photo taken at the ELCO production shows (f.l.t.r.) Aleksei Turushev (Technical Director), Natalia Sahhonenko (Senior Industrialization Engineer), Vera Mahhankova (Quality Unit Manager) and Nikolai Levitski (Technical Project Manager).
