

The Bloom Box: An Energy Breakthrough? - dpapathanasiou
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/02/18/60minutes/main6221135.shtml

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samps
This article is ludicrously short on technical details -- anyone have more?

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Devilboy
The system uses natural gas to generate electricity locally. They say it's up
to 85% efficient if you also use the heat it generates to heat your home.
Modern large scale natural gas-powered plants seems to be about 60% efficient
according to my quick Google searches.

If this thing is cheap enough it could be worthwhile, but only in cold
climates where you can use the generated heat.

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cookingrobot
A more efficient natural gas generator is fine, but not exactly "green"
compared to wind, solar, thermal, hydro, nuclear or other carbon neutral tech.
Does this device include carbon capture, or does it just spew CO2?

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joezydeco
The Bloom energy cell supposedly works without combustion. So no CO/CO2 etc.
But there have to be some byproducts somewhere.

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nradov
Combustion has nothing to do with it. If it's a natural gas fuel cell then
it's reacting mainly CH4 and O2 to produce mostly H2O and CO2, plus
electricity and heat.
[http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/technology.asp#fuelcel...](http://www.naturalgas.org/environment/technology.asp#fuelcells)

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_debug_
Their web site has a 2-day countdown timer, by the way:
<http://www.bloomenergy.com/>

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hammmatt
It would seem that there is a bit to much hype around the product. Perhaps as
more information comes out, the more 'out there' claims will gain credulity.

The real power of this discovery is going to be the ideas and patent behind
it.

Since the dawn of the industrial age we have depended on some form of
combustion/heat generation to produce steam thus turning turbines and creating
electricity. This technology might be the first real step in generating
electricity cheaply and efficiently through more elegant processes.

This may be the first iteration of changing the way humans gather electricity.

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brandon272
I highly recommend watching the video.

I'm a skeptic, but this is exciting. No emissions from the power generation
itself; they have large customers already (Google, eBay, Wal-Mart, Staples).

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dandelany
If you got "no emissions from the power generation itself" from the video then
you're not skeptic enough.

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anateus
There certainly aren't enough detail to call bullshit with true certainty, but
this does exhibit several classic warning sign. Specifically the level of
secrecy around the technical details.

On the whole this seems to be some sort of non-combustion natural-gas-based
fuel cell. Well... Could work. They tend to hand-wave a lot of details in
these broadcasts, so they may just not have mentioned certain aspects.

Would I get even a little bit excited before more proof emerges? Not an iota.

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johnnyb4
A bit further into the video, it says WalMart, eBay, Google, etc. all have
these boxes installed. I'd be surprised if he's able to trick all of these
companies into buying some fake technology.

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anateus
I saw that. That's the one detail that makes me not dismiss it out of hand.

I don't know what went into making those deals, but it is rather unlikely
(though most certainly not impossible) that he was able to dupe all of them.

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danielharan
Technology that takes oxygen and fossil fuels in, and out comes oxygen - with
NO emissions?

Bullshit. Matter doesn't just disappear; something else has to come out.

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teilo
I think you are not listening carefully. 60 minutes said that "no emissions"
was the holy grail, NOT that Bloom Energy achieved zero emissions. In fact,
Bloom themselves talk about greenhouse emissions in their materials. 60
minutes is just playing the typical bait and switch game.

So, calm down a bit, dude.

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danielharan
I am calm; check <http://twitter.com/chebuctonian/status/9461662523>

Bloom are carefully dancing around the questions, saying some outrageous
things like "it can use solar". Had I spent hundreds of millions on this, I
would want to make it look green too.

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nazgulnarsil
he invented a new kind of fuel cell but no papers have been published. i call
BS. the fact that its marketed as "green" typically means it costs much more
than current solutions but "people should be happy to pay because its good for
the environment."

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pingswept
I agree with you, even though your shift key is broken. I don't think it's
useful to discuss new green technology without mentioning the cost. If we
ignore cost, the energy problem has been totally solved for decades.

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shrikant
Borked Shift key or laziness? Where are the double-quotes coming from? ;)

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joshu
I was hoping this would be about Bloom filters.

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dpapathanasiou
I just saw the broadcast; it doesn't seem the video is up yet.

