Bloom Energy Server
 |
|
| Privately held | |
| Predecessor | Ion America |
| Founded | 2002 |
| Founder | K. R. Sridhar C.E.O , John Finn, Matthias Gottmann, James McElroy, Dien Nguyen |
| Headquarters | Sunnyvale, California, USA |
|
Key people
|
K. R. Sridhar (founder, CEO) |
| Products | regenerative solid oxide fuel cells |
| 85 Million loss (2008) | |
| Owner | Kleiner Perkins (among others) |
| Website | http://www.bloomenergy.com/ |
The Bloom Energy Server (the Bloom Box) is a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) power generator made by Bloom Energy, of Sunnyvale, California, that takes a variety of input fuels, including liquid or gaseous hydrocarbons produced from biological sources, to produce electricity at or near the site where it will be used. This new class of distributed power generator produce clean, reliable, affordable electricity at the customer site. It can withstand temperatures of up to 1,800 °F (980 °C). According to the company, a single cell (one 100 mm × 100 mm plate consisting of three ceramic layers) generates 25 watts.
Bloom stated in 2011 that two hundred servers had been deployed in California for corporations including eBay, Google, Yahoo, and Wal-Mart.
The Bloom Energy Server uses thin white ceramic plates (100 × 100 mm) that are made from components found in beach sand. Each plate is coated with a green nickel oxide-based ink on one side, forming the anode, and another black (probably Lanthanum strontium manganite) ink on the cathode side. According to the San Jose Mercury News, "Bloom's secret technology apparently lies in the proprietary green ink that acts as the anode and the black ink that acts as the cathode..." but in fact these materials are widely known in the field of SOFCs. Wired reported that the secret ingredient may be yttria-stabilized zirconia based upon US patent that was granted to Bloom in 2009; but this material is also one of the most common electrolyte materials in the field.US patent application 20080261099, assigned to Bloom Energy Corporation, says that the "electrolyte includes yttria stabilized zirconia and a scandia-stabilized zirconia, such as a scandia ceria stabilized zirconia". ScSZ has a higher conductivity than YSZ at lower temperatures, which provides greater efficiency and higher reliability when used as an electrolyte. Scandia is scandium oxide (Sc
2O
3) which is a transition metal oxide that costs between US$1,400 and US$2,000 per kilogram in 99.9% pure form. Current annual worldwide production of scandium is less than 2,000 kilograms. Most of the 5,000 kilograms used annually is sourced from Soviet era stockpiles.
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Wikipedia