India contributed so many things to the world to make us all proud to be an Indian and now on Wednesday, it will add one more thing to make us all proud to be an Indian.
Sridhar (an ex NASA researcher?) has developed an off-grid source of cheap, clean electricity in a device that is the size of a loaf of bread. The device is called Bloom Box, a much hypedFuel Cell which will be formally introduced to the world on Wednesday at eBay's headquarters in California.
What is this Fuel Cell Bloom Box?
Bloom boxes are produced from stacks of ceramic plates. The plates, which are made of sand, are painted with special green and black inks. One such stack, or cell, can power a light bulb; 64 can power a coffee shop.
These bloom boxes can use any fuel source – gas, plants, wind, solar, etc – to generate power, which would theoretically enable the Bloom Box to operate entirely off the electricity grid. Bloom Box reportedly proved twice as efficient as traditional power sources and produced 60% fewer emissions.
According to the Guardian, Sridhar's work draws on his research on generating oxygen for Nasa's missions to Mars. Nasa has been using similar devices aboard its vehicles for years but Sridhar's achievement was to make the technology affordable, he told the Atlantic magazine last December.
"I want to open up access to energy the way that PCs and the web opened up access to information," Sridhar told the Atlantic. "So people can live where they want, and still be connected, without someone telling them when they can do their laundry."
Can't wait for Wednesday...
Fuel cells were invented over a century ago and have been used in practically every NASA mission since the 1960's, but until now, they have not gained widespread adoption because of their inherently high costs.
Legacy fuel cell technologies like proton exchange membranes (PEMs), phosphoric acid fuel cells (PAFCs), and molten carbonate fuel cells (MCFCs), have all required expensive precious metals, corrosive acids, or hard to contain molten materials. Combined with performance that has been only marginally better than alternatives, they have not been able to deliver a strong enough economic value proposition to overcome the status quo.
Some makers of legacy fuel cell technologies have tried to overcome these limitations by offering combined heat and power (CHP) schemes to take advantage of their wasted heat. While CHP does improve the economic value proposition, it only really does so in environments with exactly the right ratios of heat and power requirements on a 24/7/365 basis. Everywhere else the cost, complexity, and customization of CHP tends to outweigh the benefits.
Solid Oxide Fuel Cells
For decades, experts have agreed that solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) hold the greatest potential of any fuel cell technology. With low cost ceramic materials, and extremely high electrical efficiencies, SOFCs can deliver attractive economics without relying on CHP. But until now, there were significant technical challenges inhibiting the commercialization of this promising new technology. SOFCs operate at extremely high temperature (typically above 800°C). This high temperature gives them extremely high electrical efficiencies, and fuel flexibility, both of which contribute to better economics, but it also creates engineering challenges.
Bloom has solved these engineering challenges. With breakthroughs in materials science, and revolutionary new design, Bloom's SOFC technology is a cost effective, all-electric solution.
Over a century in the making, fuel cells are finally clean, reliable, and most importantly, affordable.
Click here to see how a SOFC works.
Bloom has solved these engineering challenges. With breakthroughs in materials science, and revolutionary new design, Bloom's SOFC technology is a cost effective, all-electric solution.
Over a century in the making, fuel cells are finally clean, reliable, and most importantly, affordable.
Click here to see how a SOFC works.
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