News & Analysis
Fuel cell system claims 2X efficiency
R Colin Johnson
2/22/2010 3:06 PM EST
"I've seen the technology and it works," said Powell during a recent interview with CBS's 60 Minutes. "I think the Bloom Boxes will make a significant contribution to...the transformation of our energy system."
Bloom Boxes are fuel cell systems about the size of a refrigerator that produce about twice as much electricity from natural gas compared to traditional gas-powered electricity generators. The Bloom Boxes installed at eBay go one step further, burning waste bio-gases from landfill waste. According to eBay, its Bloom Boxes are supplying five times as much usable power as the arrays of solar cells that dot most of its roofs.
The key to Bloom Energy's technology is the "Box" invented by company founder K.R. Sridhar. He originally designed the Bloom Box to work in reverse—producing oxygen for astronauts from carbon dioxide on Mars. But after the manned Mars mission was scrapped, Sridhar transformed the technology into a high-efficiency fuel cell that takes in oxygen and uses it to combine with the carbon in natural gas, thereby stripping its electrons to produce electricity, and creating only water and carbon dioxide as waste.
Other companies shooting for similar goals include Fuel Cell Energy Inc. (Danbury, Conn.), which has about 60 fuel-cell installations at companies including Pepperidge Farm and Westin Hotels. But Bloom Energy (San Jose, Calif.) claims to have technological advantages that will enable its approach to outperform more traditional approaches. For instance, inside the Bloom Box are traditional fuel cell stacks consisting of ceramic and proton exchange membranes separated by metal catalyst plates. However, instead of expensive platinum, Sridhar has engineered an inexpensive metal alloy substitute.
The resultant Bloom Boxes are not inexpensive today— about $750,000 for a unit capable of running a household (about four to six units are needed to run a typical data center). But within five to 10 years the company promises to reduce the price to as little as $3,000.
"The Bloombox is designed to replace the grid—it's cheaper than the grid and greener than the grid," said John Doerr a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers (KPCB).
KPCB, New Enterprise Associates, Morgan Stanley and other investors have ponied up over $100 million in seed funding with up to $400 million on tap for ramping up production capabilities.
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dirk.bruere
2/23/2010 9:37 AM EST
No more electricity grid, just gaslight!
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Carl_S
2/23/2010 5:25 PM EST
So Bloom Energy has made some prototypes of a really, really expensive power generator. They claim they will reduce the cost by orders of magnitude in 5-10 years.
I don't think anybody knows what breakthroughs in a new technology will be made in 5-10 years, so this all sounds like speculation to me.
We are just going to have to wait 5-10 years and see what they come up with.
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stixoffire
2/24/2010 3:09 AM EST
Well that is terrific - ONLY ONE LITTLE CATCH.. if you call this thing Green Technology... ISN'T CO2 the thing we are trying to eliminate and yet this box emits CO2 ...Hmmm how about telling me 2x efficiency with either pure O or H2O as a waste product. although that CO2 in the Atmosphere - oh that is right we are going to bury it in the sand.. Brilliant - transfer the problem from one place to another..
NOT GREEN, except maybe the trees will love it...
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Bgosh
2/24/2010 9:46 AM EST
Is this really the whole story? What is happening the the H? Natural gas is mostly Methane CH4. I thought that the usual fuel cell implementations use the H and end up with H2O as the byproduct. Surely they are not wasting the Hydrogen.
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SmartBrain
2/25/2010 1:16 PM EST
re: stixoffire
Did you not read that this technology is 2x as efficient? Meaning that for each gram of CO2 produced by this technology, 2 grams of CO2 are taken out of the air which are presently produced by current technology, which would be replaced? Most current technology electricity generation employs generators, powered by oil, gas, coal etc., producing CO2. We would be cutting CO2 production by 50%!
The next step would be all electric cars using fuel cells. The efficiency improvement on those would be substancially more than 2X!
Yes, we are on the right track!
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katgod
2/26/2010 11:33 AM EST
2x as good as the worst or the best power plant. Some of the best power plants run at about 60% efficiency so the 2X would probably be a stretch.
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AzStreak
2/26/2010 11:52 AM EST
CORRECTION: The basic unit supplies 100KW of electrical energy which is MUCH more than you stated as "unit capable of running a household"... unless it was perhaps Al Gore's mansion!
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OlieV
3/1/2010 4:31 AM EST
I was amazed with the news that Ive heard last night about href="http://personalmoneystore.com/moneyblog/2010/02/25/bloom-energy-hopes-businesses-grid/ ">Bloom Energy. Bloom energy is on of the new form of alternative energy. They are proponents of fuel cell technology, and thus far they have established energy servers at eBay and Google campuses, and they are capable of producing energy at a cost of only 8 to 9 cents per kilowatt hour. One energy server is certainly out of the scope of payday loans, or most bank loans for that matter each server costs up to $900,000 a piece, and produces up to 100 KWe, enough to power a small office building or about 100 homes, but that doesn't include fuel.
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katgod
3/3/2010 3:06 AM EST
In most fuel cells it is the hydrogen that the oxygen is looking for not the carbon, which is not to say that carbon dioxide is not created but to question how the electrons are obtained in this reaction
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