Bloom Energy Servers

I caught the piece on 60 Minutes about Bloom Energy, and just know watched the videos on the Bloom energy website. They now have many units in the field that are providing power to specific office buildings although I don't see anyone talk about 100% powered by the Bloom energy Servers. These are run from natural gas as well as propane and biofuel. In the videos they mention that the Bloomboxes will store as well as produce electricity. Their hope is to unite the Bloombox with solar collectors that produce electricity in the day, store it in the Bloombox and have it produce electricity when there is no sun.

They do talk about them being cost effective after talking about it being green and carbon footprint reducing. I'd rather see them stress the cost effectiveness, however it is mentioned that if you have one at your office of home you want it clean. A power plant 50 miles away spewing pollutants doesn't bother you like one 50 ft away. I'm skeptic but I hope they really have a usable cost effective technology. If you want to watch the videos skip the first one (Boy with airplane) unless you want to hear Arnold Schwarzenegger. Like to hear your input :-) Mike

Reply to
amdx
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I stumbled on this about two weeks ago. My first reactionw as that it was a scam. After hearing that many fortune 500 companies were using this technology I thought that it might actually be something. It is a bit hyped in that it is not completely green and I believe the technology is in an infancy. I hear that there are also other companies that are further head then this one.

The good thing is that it might be a step in the right direction. The bad news is that one can expect propane costs to explode if this takes off. What I would like to know is the actual efficiency of the product. If it is no more efficient than running a generator off the propane then whats the point?

IMO nuclear is still the clear winner and probably always will be. This type of technology *might* be the next best thing...

Reply to
Jon Slaughter

It has come up before fairly recently. I confess I am sceptical in that I cannot see where these units dump their waste heat. What he seems to have done is make mass produced self healing fuel cells that are tolerant of different fuels. And probably run rather hot inside the box.

Other fuel cell technologies exist but are rather fussy about what they will burn. It annoyed me intensely when I visited the UK renewable hydrogen economy exhibition in Trafalgar Square. The exhibition was powered by an ugly smelly diesel generator on tickover when there were two or three full scale fuel cell plants there capable of powering a telephone exchange stood idle on the stands.

This sounds more like the marketing men speaking. His client list does look impressive though. Time will tell if it is a flyer. It may even be relevant to telephone exchanges as backup power.

If it really works then power grids may become a thing of the past.

A definite maybe. I would like to see some figures for the claimed thermodynamic efficiency fuel in, electric power out and waste heat.

Regards, Martin Brown

Reply to
Martin Brown

One could convert from propane to LNG, as gas is cheap as all get-out; gas storage facilities are either full or close to it and gas production is increasing..

Reply to
Robert Baer

At what temperature does fused quartz become conductive? The 60 minutes segment showed the basic element as a square of fused quartz with the electrodes screened on each side. It looked about 10 cm square, but was put inside an insulated housing that looked at least 1/2 meter across. Hot stuff, if only 5% of your volume is the working parts.

Ah, found the answer. There's an article in the March 6 (No. 2750) New Scientist. Seems that there are several competitors to Bloom, who figure that the Bloom cell has to run at 900 degC, and that theirs are more manufacturable as they can be built to run at 750 degC (Topsoe in Denmark) and 600 degC (Ceres Power in the UK).

The buzzword seems to be Solid Oxide Fuel Cell.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Reply to
Mark Zenier

If natural gas is available in your area. It isn't, in large parts of Florida. Propane has to be trucked into most areas, as well. Neither is cheaper than using electricity from the coal or nuclear power plants.

--
Lead free solder is Belgium's version of 'Hold my beer and watch this!'
Reply to
Michael A. Terrell

Fused quartz is sufficiently nonconductive to make HID lamp arc tubes with, and metal halide lamp arc tubes often hit 750-800 C, and it appears to me that 900 C is a little common for metal halide lamp arc tubes.

- Don Klipstein ( snipped-for-privacy@misty.com)

Reply to
Don Klipstein

Indeed. But can you find any decent technical references to the internal technology and operating conditions that are not entirely PR fluff?

Ceres has a bit online and it appears to be similar to a CHP unit that powers the Japanese Prime Ministers residence (ISTR of US manufacture). eg.

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(except that it will burn mains gas rather than super pure hydrogen)

Regards, Martin Brown

Reply to
Martin Brown

...

Sure looks like they're in their "pumping up the stock for the IPO" phase. Maybe the patent databases would yield something, but it's probably a bit early for that.

Well, I assume it's fused quartz. The 60 Minutes program just called it "Beach Sand".

The trick must be in the doping. The New Scientist article mentioned that that is how Ceres got the operating temperature of their cells down.

Mark Zenier snipped-for-privacy@eskimo.com Googleproofaddress(account:mzenier provider:eskimo domain:com)

Reply to
Mark Zenier

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