The New Fuel Cell or Solid State Electric Generation

Although fuel cells have been around for a long time, they have had a few obstacles to overcome that have prevented wide spread adoption. First is the cost, due to the need to use the precious metals platinum, palladium, iridium, or rhodium. Second is the need for pure hydrogen to generate a good steady supply of electricity. Third and many believe the largest obstacle is the competitive market of energy production companies and the inability of a start up to bloom in such a harsh environment.

A new startup may have overcome these obstacles. They claim to have replaced the need for pure hydrogen with any hydrocarbon fuel. It can be run off natural gas, propane, gasoline, diesel, etc.. They claim that the cost factor has been overcome by replacing the precious metal with a cheaper proprietary alloy. They state that a cell to power the average sized U.S. house will cost about $3,000.00 US. It is being backed by an impressive venture capitalist.

There are a few more questions i have, such as operating temperatures and fuel consumption per kilowatt. They claim half the fuel consumption of gasoline powered fuel generation. There is also the question of carbon dioxide production, if it is using a hydrocarbon fuel the carbon has to be released somehow. Although it would obviously be less greenhouse gas producing than a standard gasoline powered generator, i assume it releases the carbon as carbon dioxide gas even though conventional combustion is not employed.

If Bloom Energy's promises are fulfilled a suitcase sized, silent, electric generator that can be fueled by a propane tank or a vehicles fuel tank may be in the future of vagabonds, vandwellers, and RVers.

Here is a 60 Minutes article, by Lesley Stahl, that includes more info, including an interview with the inventor and the venture capitalist.


Watch CBS News Videos Online


A little extra video from CBS.


Watch CBS News Videos Online

The Company website. At the time of the posting the company is still about 6 hrs. from going public so there is not much info at the site except a countdown clock to the time of going public. Later today i look forward to see what replaces that countdown clock.

http://www.bloomenergy.com/


There are rumors that Google my be involved in getting into the energy field using the Bloom Box connection.

http://industry.bnet.com/technology/10005456/google-just-brokering-power-or-creating-and-selling-it/

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