 | Rachel Nolan - Peak Oil Speech in Qld Parliament | TOD: Australia/New Zealand | The Bullroarer - Monday 31 March 2008 |  |
54 comments on Cogeneration At Home: Ceramic Fuel Cells And Bloom Energy
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The problem with this technology is that it arrived 20 years too late. Notwithstanding the cheaper prices it seems odd to become more dependent on fossil fuel. I'm not sure how long the Dutch will have reliable gas but the Japanese will need those bubble boats to keep coming in from places like our NW Shelf. Re which south eastern Australia will be experiencing gas supply problems within a decade. If I recall even the basin (Browse?) that supplies Perth may not keep up with demand.
I haven't run the numbers but I'm sure biogas can't get close to making up the required volumes. Therefore I think the future of home heating is local biomass, electrical or conservation. We should save gas for for crucial needs such as peak generation, fertiliser production, food processing and gas-to-liquids jet fuel.
As EP noted (as did I in my post on Bloom Energy last year) - this is a stopgap solution, not a long term one.
If you can get a 50% increase in efficiency (and reduction in emissions) then this is a step forward at least, and a useful one for the next couple of decades...
That's also the crux of the 'nuclear bridge' argument. Nobody knows if extended fuel cycles will be economic but it could free up energy to construct lower average yield renewables (ie when backed up).
I guess FC-CHP with feed-in tariff could work for an operation that only requires low process heat, a baked bean factory perhaps.
I know a little about Bloom. The assessment of the stop-gap nature is correct - nat gas is the main feedstock, rather than hydrogen and that's deliberate. Bloom is counting on the infrastructure for nat gas being around (and the gas itself) to build a solid market in fuel cells for small business, offices, data centers etc. The home market isn't ready and the economics are not there either for Bloom.
Someone else may have more pertinent information, but the modular design of Bloom's 100kW unit suggested to me that they were looking to a pure hydrogen approach later, but well after they had established a market.
One of Bloom's key differences in R&D is their reliance on first principles modelling technology for the development of the fuel cell, which usually leads to a shorter design cycle and has also allowed for an efficiency gain over nearest rivals. The main target of Bloom I think is absolutely correct - medium size diesel back up generators in small industry, health care etc. And I would expect that they will stay close to home initially, the San Fran to Oakland area, where there are plenty of markets for IT related back up gen replacements.