ekingsting
100 mW
I saw this BloomBox battery http://bloomboxenergy.us/ and thought It might be of interest someday soon. What do you think?
Battery made with sand and paint
- Thread starter ekingsting
- Start date
bigmoose
1 MW
Looking at the design and the robust insulation of the inner core. I would bet that his design is a solid oxide fuel cell running around say 650 degrees C. Solid oxide fuel cells are much more tolerant to sulfur and other contaminants than proton exchange fuel cells. The deal with solid oxide is it takes about 8 hours to come up to operating temperature, then you want to keep in on and fueled with the operating temperature stabilized.
I was in an entrepreneur's plant 10 years ago that showed me a sulfur tolerant, 1 KW solid oxide fuel cell system that was the size of two microwaves stacked end on end.
When he talks of "painting" and "beach sand" he is using some very common terms for an exotic process. The separators are high purity alumina, and the "paints" contain rare earths that are screen printed on with a mask then fired to the ceramic. Don't let his very humble speech fool you, there is very exotic and highly controlled processes in the manufacture of Bloom Energy Cells. The thinner the separators the higher the efficiency. Thin separators that are durable do not grow on trees.
Bottom line, solid oxide fuel cells work. Putting together a reliable system with cost effective balance of plant is key. He may well have it. Bravo I say, if he does!
It does burn natural gas. So it has a fossil fuel footprint. Though the solid oxide fuel cell of Benson Lee of TMI highlighted below will "burn" just about anything!
Edit: Here is a pdf with a decent primer on solid oxide fuel cells as "disruptive technology." I have had the pleasure of meeting Benson Lee, he is a fine gentlemen. http://urban.csuohio.edu/forum/events/powerpoints/10_18_06_energy_lee.pdf
Here are how the inks are screen printed and how a solid oxide fuel cell is made:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/seca/milliken.pdf
I was in an entrepreneur's plant 10 years ago that showed me a sulfur tolerant, 1 KW solid oxide fuel cell system that was the size of two microwaves stacked end on end.
When he talks of "painting" and "beach sand" he is using some very common terms for an exotic process. The separators are high purity alumina, and the "paints" contain rare earths that are screen printed on with a mask then fired to the ceramic. Don't let his very humble speech fool you, there is very exotic and highly controlled processes in the manufacture of Bloom Energy Cells. The thinner the separators the higher the efficiency. Thin separators that are durable do not grow on trees.
Bottom line, solid oxide fuel cells work. Putting together a reliable system with cost effective balance of plant is key. He may well have it. Bravo I say, if he does!
It does burn natural gas. So it has a fossil fuel footprint. Though the solid oxide fuel cell of Benson Lee of TMI highlighted below will "burn" just about anything!
Edit: Here is a pdf with a decent primer on solid oxide fuel cells as "disruptive technology." I have had the pleasure of meeting Benson Lee, he is a fine gentlemen. http://urban.csuohio.edu/forum/events/powerpoints/10_18_06_energy_lee.pdf
Here are how the inks are screen printed and how a solid oxide fuel cell is made:
http://www.netl.doe.gov/publications/proceedings/01/seca/milliken.pdf
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