Energy Matters Forums

[MichaelB]

The last few days has seen an incredible amount of buzz building up about the Bloom Box; a fuel cell device that could be powered by solar energy and touted to be the solution to on-site clean electricity generation for home and business.

http://www.energymatters.com.au/index.p ... cle_id=777

[Gordon-Loomberah]

Oxygen is drawn into the Bloom Box and a fuel such as natural gas or even provided by solar energy is also applied. The resulting reaction, which occurs at around 1,000 degrees Celsius, generates electricity without any sort of greenhouse gas emissions.

This statement does not make sense to me.

Either they are combining Oxygen with natural gas and producing some CO2 (there is no escaping that if it's any sort of oxidation reaction) or its using solar power to make power... Eh? Why not use the solar power directly?

[MichaelB]

Hence some of the questions asked at the end of the article. I'm not even sure it qualifies as a fuel cell if it doesn't store anything.

I really don't get it either, but heck there's been a lot of interest in the concept .

I may have missed something in the 60 minutes report Gordon - I'm looking forward to reading more about it on official launch day. Even then I probably won't understand it all.

I'm hoping to do another article on it, so when it is published if you spot something I have missed, feel free to swat me across the back of the skull.

[Gordon-Loomberah]

Hence some of the questions asked at the end of the article. I'm not even sure it qualifies as a fuel cell if it doesn't store anything.

Fuel cells use a catalyst to combine a fuel and an oxidiser, generally as a flow through arrangement, so dont store anything as such. If you are combining Oxygen with natrual gas, you are going to be getting electricity +H2O + CO2 out the other side... maybe they add sugar and call it lemonade- hence no greenhouse gases

[MichaelB]

Ahhhh, ok, thanks.

OK, I just found some other sites saying "60% lower emissions".

Thanks for the friendly "fwap" Gordon - will update the article to read "less emissions" or similar to cover my butt .

.. and then there's the whole solar power question. Maybe they are just seeing that aspect as a way of lessening natural gas usage when conditions are good for solar - still a bit iffy, I assume the system needed to power such a setup would need to be pretty big.

I guess all will be revealed Thursday.

[MichaelB]

Bloom Box official unveiling was a few hours ago; I've quickly been over the site and press releases and can't find any mention of solar power specifically or visions of in-home systems. Company claims carbon-neutrality using biomass as a fuel source.

I won't bother with a follow up article. Hats off to Bloom's PR team though!