Bloom is way ahead on the use of PR, but on technology and economics The Fuel Cell Energy Co. of Danbury, CT Molten Carbonate fuel cell and Versa Power Systems of Littleton, CO Solid Oxide fuel cell appear to be far ahead of Bloom. Bloom's fuel cell is also a Solid Oxide fuel cell. Global Thermoelectric, a Canadian Company, commenced in business in 1975, making and selling thermoelectric generators for use by oil and gas pipelines and other industries for cathodic protection against corrosion that needed a highly reliable albeit very low efficiency generator for use in very remote locations. These worked on the principle that if you heat two joined dissimilar metals, a current flow would commence between them. Starting in 1997, Global Thermoelectric actively engaged in integrated solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC ) manufacturing technology research and development in which the basics were obtained from a research center in Germany. Global%u2019s cell manufacturing process had three major operation units for fabrication of its anode supported planar cells. As of 2004 Global was able, at a pilot plant in Calgary, Alberta, Canada to produce cells at a volume equivalent to 5 MW/year with greater than 90% yield. Furthermore, the production pipeline reduced the time of manufacture from 30 days to 4 days, and cell cost per kW (direct labour and materials) had been significantly reduced by 65%. Three major problems that must be overcome by all fuel cell companies are 1. Reducing the cost of the cell stack and the balance of plant, including the cost of the electrical inverter that inverts the DC output to AC, 2. Increasing the fuel efficiency of the cell stack in operation, and 3. Maintaining the high fuel efficiency for long periods without cell degradation. Bloom was founded in 2001 in Sunnyvale, California. It has about 10 years of experience. It has not participated in DOE's SECA cost reduction program. It has yet to show it can overcome these barriers. In 2004 Global was sold to Fuel Cell Energy of Danbury, Ct that manufactured Molten Carbonate Fuel Cells. FCE promptly transferred Gobal to Versa Power Systems. VPS was founded in 2001 as a joint venture between the Gas Technology Institute, Electric Power Research Institute, Materials and Systems Research, Inc., and University of Utah. In return for the transfer of the tangible assets of Global Thermoelectric, Fuel Cell Energy received shares of Versa Power Systems sufficient to increase its holdings to 42%. Taking the learning of Global Thermoelectric into account, VPS has had about 13 years of experience in solid oxide fuel cells. Fuel Cell Energy has had some 30 years of experience in the research, development and commercialization of PEM and Molten Carbonate fuel cells. FCE targets loads from 300 kW to 3,000 kW such as supermarkets, colleges, hotels, hospitals. FCE has already cut its costs so that its largest model can now be manufactured to sell with a positive margin. The production cost of these fuel cells declines sharply with volume production. FCE currently has 60 installations around the world. FCE owns 42% of Versa Power Systems. Versa Power does not yet market a commercial product but has already gotten the cost of its smaller fuel cell down to an estimated cost of $700 per kW (when manufactured in high volume) through its participation in the billion dollar US DOE SECA cost reduction program. According to DOE's NETL (National Electric Technology Lab) the cost estimates have been certified by the US Office of Management and Budget. By continuing to participate in that cost reduction program it expects its fuel cells to cost only $400 per kW by 2012, a competitive cost. Bloom's cost estimates seem to be predicted on estimates that its fuel cells will be reduced to about $300 per kW in about 10 years when manufactured in volume and will then be commercial. Neither FCE nor Versa use platinum catalysts and neither need to be fueled with hydrogen. These are advantages that Bloom has implied are exclusive to its product. In fact the FCE fuel cell reforms more hydrogen from natural gas than it needs to generate electricity -- the surplus could be used to fuel cars with PEM fuel cells that require hydrogen for fuel. The FCE fuel cell, in addition to using natural gas as a fuel, can also use coal gas ("syn gas"), propane, mine mouth methane, bio-gas, diesel oil, and byproduct gases from industrial processes such as methane from beer brewing and bread baking, and even paint fumes from the painting facility of an auto manufacturer and sewage effluent from an anaerobic digester. Most American single family houses have a 100 amp connection with the grid, a service drop that will accommodate a peak load of 10 kW at 110 volts or up to 20 kW if loads are served at 220 V. The Versa Power Solid Oxide fuel cell is suitable for that use to satisfy the electrical and/or heating and air conditioning needs of a single family residence but can also be scaled up to 100,000 kW plants using syn gas with an efficiency of 50%. FCE and Versa Power are currently developing such a large plant for DOE. Bloom's 100 kW fuel cell weighed 100 tons or 200,000 lbs according to its initial spec sheet. That sounded excessive to me. I am glad to learn the weight is now posted at 10 tons or 200 lbs per kW. The Versa Power fuel cell also weighs only 200 lbs per kW, Versa Power has been cooperating with the US Airforce on developing power supply for military drones and with the US Navy on developing power supply for mobile underwater platforms. At 2,000 lbs per kW, Bloom fuel cells are likely far too heavy for this purpose but at 200 lbs per kW they will be able to compete for the Vulture II project. FCE's stationary fuel cell has an efficiency of 47% after its DC output (efficiency, 54%) undergoes losses due to its inversion to AC so as to be compatible with the grid. It could be used as DC if operated in isolation. Its efficiency in relatively small sizes permits it to be located near its loads so it does not have to provide for losses over transmission and distribution lines. Conventional coal fired steam turbine generation must get up to sizes of some 500,000 to 600,000 kW to reach an optimal efficiency of 38% (or 43% for rare supercritical units). Per kW hardware costs are also lower also in these larger units. Power from these giant units when adjusted for transmission line and distribution line losses to the customer's meter, may only have a fuel efficiency of 29%. The invention of the aeroderivative internal combustion gas turbine-generator in the early 70s permitted gas to be used as a base load fuel when it was somewhat higher in cost than coal per mmbtu but not a multiple of that cost. That was because of its greater efficiency and lower capacity cost as no expensive boiler was required. The increase in gas cost to multiples of coal cost after the year 2000, greatly reduced their desirability. These gas turbines can be used as the front end of a combined cycle unit. When fully loaded and at optimal temperature and pressure combined cycles can reach a 50% efficiency at sizes of 50,000 kW, and at a size of 400,000 kW, reach an efficiency of 60%. FCE can also be used as a combined cycle or hybrid "FC/GT". When its exhaust is fed into a turbine-generator its electrical fuel efficiency increases to 56%. It can be used with backpressure turbines at high pressure gas transmission line pressure step down stations where it can develop a fuel efficiency of 60% (its model DFC-ERG). It claims that with much larger units of 40,000 kW it can achieve an electrical fuel efficiency of 78% It can also cogenerate because the units is on site, the heat will only have to travel a few yards. Heat energy can't travel for long distances. When there is a need for domestic hot water, process steam, space heating or air conditioning at the site of the electrical load, its combined heat and power (CHP) fuel efficiencly can grow as high as 90% as it has at one hospital installation in Germany. FCE has partnered with POSCO Steel Co. of South Korea. It is one of its best customers. POSCO has built a factory to manufacture the mechanical and electrical portions of FCE's fuel cell leaving the stack elements almost entirely to FCE. FCE is currently manufacturing at a rate of 30,000 kW per year and will be raising its capacity to 50,000 kW per year. The FCE and Versa Fuel Cells can eliminate transmission and distribution lines and also 99% of the toxic pollution emitted by coal generation that provides for more than half of all kilowatt hours generated in the US. Elimination of the transmission and distribution line losses and construction and operation and maintenance costs, can eliminate 5¢ per kilowatt hour of cost of electricity at the customer's meter. Bloom appears to have been comparing his fuel cell with the Plugpower fuel cell early on sponsored by GE, that was also targeted at single family residences of about 10 kW. It uses a PEM fuel cell. It is a low temperature fuel cell with a plastic electrolite that would melt at high temperatures. Only low temperature fuel cells require platinum or noble metal catalysts. As these are expensive and also easily poisoned by carbon monoxide in the hydrocarbon reformate, high temperature fuel cells such as those made by FCE, Versa, and Bloom are more desirable. The high temperature fuel cells are also more efficient than the low temperature ones because they do not require a separate reformer -- the hydrocarbon is reformed in the stack. The Plugpower complete units, initially sponsored by GE, have never become commercial, likely because of catalyst poisoning problems -- i.e. poisoning by small amounts of carbon monoxide in the gas reformate.. But its stack is being used with bottled hydrogen to provide backup power supply at telephone central stations and at some electrical substations for backup to operate relays and circuit breakers. High temperature fuel cells, not requiring platinum or noble metals as a catalyst, are not poisoned by carbon monoxide -- they consume it and generate additional electricity from it. SYSTEM ISSUES The initial need for transmission and distribution lines is that generators are much larger than the individual loads they serve. The reason they are larger is that there are great economies of scale in generation. From the small Pearl Street Station in 1882 that had a fuel efficiency estimated at 8%, with Nikola Tesla's invention of polyphase alternating current, generators grew to serve entire municipalities. With direct current systems they could only serve in an area of about one mile, a half mile radius from a central generating station. This changed with the advent of single phase and then polyphase alternating current technology. Larger generators could serve entire communities and then entire regions -- even an entire state. Investors bought up electric power utilities and merged them to take advantage of economies of scale that were so great they more than offset the additional costs of transmission and distribution -- just to take advantage of the better fuel efficiency and lower hardware cost per kw. From 1882 to 1970 generator scale of coal fired boilers supplying steam turbines increased to optimal sizes of 500,000 kW or 600,000 kW and to even large sizes that proved sub optimal. And with the increases in scale, their fuel efficiency increased to about 38% and if one were to accept the risks of operating supercritical generating units with extremely high temperatures and pressures, to as much as 43%. The integration of loads in an area with transmission and distribution also led to additional economies from load diversity and generator forced outage diversity. For loads that had a low load factor -- where most generation was needed just a few hours of the day, the larger the area served, the greater the probability that everyone's peak usage would not occur at the same time. So for example, with single family residences that use at most 10 kW, but on average only 1 to 1.5 kW, on average these could be served with only 2 kW of generation per customer, saving 80% of generation capacity costs. Also, for firm power, the systems needed generator reserves. The reserves for forced outage might be needed only a few hours per year. With integration, because of forced outage diversities, one generator could meet the reserve power needs of several electric utility systems. However transmission and distribution is rapidly increasing in cost. As of 2000, the average cost per kW of transmission and distribution (T&D), including substations, was $500 per kW, but the average cost of recently installed T&D was almost $1,500 per kW. When the cost of fuel cell generating capacity falls below the cost of integrating transmission and distribution, it may no longer be economical to use them. The most stationary power supply may then change from integrated systems to distributed fuel cell generation. Prior to that time, owners of fuel cells may integrate them into "micro-grids" by distribution or sub-transmission (low voltage transmission) to obtain load and generation outage diversities. Micro-grids are being explored even now in Connecticut. Because of its greater efficiency, the fuel cell will reduce so called greenhouse gases significantly, but greenhouse gases are undesirable only if you believe in global warming; many are commencing to believe that is just a scam. However the fuel cell will almost completely eliminate the really dangerous emissions of toxic pollution such as NOX, SO2 and particulate matter (99% of those emissions as compared with coal generation) because it generates electrochemically rather than by combustion at much lower temperatures than the temperature of combustion. Over the last 150 years there have been but four inventions that have made a great impact in the electric energy supply market. These are 1. the change from small on-site generators to central stations to obtain electric power service without the need to operate an maintain a generator, 2. the change to polyphase alternating current with its invention by Nikola Tesla and its ability to integrate loads and generation to secure fuel efficiency, lower hardware costs per kW, and optimal use of generating capacity, 3. the invention of the aeroderivative internal combustion gas turbine that increased the efficiency of gas turbines from 28% to 43% and permitted combined cycle operation at efficiencies up to 60%, and 4. the development of the fuel cell that is efficient at small sizes, can eliminate transmission and distribution lines, and can almost eliminate toxic pollution. The last development has one further important effect, its effect on competition. To install a conventional optimal coal fired steam turbine, one has to raise a half billion dollars. Even at $3,000 per kW, a 300 kW generating unit can be installed for a million dollars. With the costs of base load generators so reduced, one would expect to see a lot more competition in the electric power supply market. Great increases in volume and the learning curve could continue to drive cost down even below $400 per kW. If cost can be driven down as low as $50 per kW the Solid Oxide fuel cell can be competitive against the internal combustion engine in the automobile market.  View

Move to California!  View

IF WE HAVE EDUCATED PEOPLE WILL BE BEST DAY BY DAY. MARCELO HOLOT CALIFORNIA  View

The TARP bailout fund was not intended for job-creation program and thus should not be used for job-creation. Yes, the President needs a jobs program, however, TARP is not the source. The original language has real specificity about the way money can be used; the money has to go into the banking system. Ms Pelosi cannot confiscate $200 billion because California has 12.5% unemployment. NJ is not much better. Besides, the problem is the profligate spending in these states. Congress needs to go through the process of drafting legislation for the President's signature if it wants additional funding.  View

Help me understand this... You think Tiger wood the first person to chase after a bunch of women? Leave Tiger alone. He is the best on the green and the media is blowing it out of proportion. If you want somebody to focus on let%u2019s take Steven Segal for example. Steven is getting a lot of publicity with his new program on A&E. Steven claims to have a certificate from Police Officer Standards and Training from California. California denies his claim. Steven Segal dumped his first wife and child in Tokyo and married another woman in the US without even divorcing his first wife. Steven has a habit of burying his bone outside of the marriage. I am not agreeing with what Tiger did with these women, but get real and stop acting shocked. Most famous men bury their bone where it does not belong. Based on what I have seen and heard, I would say about 80-85 percent of the households in US have had one spouse on another in someone else%u2019s bed at one point in time or another during thier marriage. Grow up!  View

Let them cut public funding! Let them! It will look bad on them and to the people in need, and then lets start a donation from all people in this country to a non bigoted donation in the area. Hey make it all LGBT! Yeah see how bigotry will stop right in anyones tracks when they are told they can't get food because they are bigots or see them not eat because it was handed to them from someone that is gay!!! What needs to happen is anyone that is against gays having the same rights, should have rights taken away. Period. I'm straight, getting married in July and my same sex friend is my bridesman, i'm female. It breaks my heart that he will witness in california myself getting a right that he cannot have. I told him I was going to hold off, and he said over my and well.....I'm not getting married under god, i'm not religous. So it's about the family and friends and yes there is advantages to marriage. THAT ALL PEOPLE SHOULD HAVE! You know what, send every man and woman that is against same sex to another place! Free shipping! They can have there own laws and breed and brainwash all they like. I'm soo sick of this! If this charity goes down, i will picket in California and make donations for another funded place and let these disgusting people look like the insecure humans they are!  View

I have lived with my partner of 23 years. We would loved to get married but at this time California no longer allows same sex marriage. I do hope once and for all this issue is resolved so we can get married continue to live and love each other and deal with other issues like education, respect, and caring for our young people who need to be told what it means to be a caring and loving person.  View

i dont know about politics but i have one year i los angeles california & i have not find a job yet what is going on the econommy or the jobs  View

Energy standards seem appropriate only if the technogy exists to meet them. I believe California's time period for compliance isn't reasonable and is probably based on unsupported science. More public hearings should have been held before passing such a law.  View

Go California! I feel like the CEA is just scaring everyone, I think this push will improve innovation and new technology. They will be forced to invent products that are energy efficient AND high performance. Of course this is a good idea!  View