The mysterious Bloom Box

Chris

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May 30, 2008
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It's a shiny box with a whole lot of mystery that's receiving a whole lot of attention this week. The "Bloom Box" a roughly cubic structure has already been embraced by eBay, Google, Staples, FedEx, and Walmart, which extol its savings. But is the new box the solution to all of mankind energy problems or a snake oil remedy for the world's fossil fuel habit?

In an exclusive interview on the CBS television program 60 Minutes, company K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, gave the public a tantalizing first peek at the secret alternative energy device. And on Wednesday, he will follow that performance up with a major public announcement in Silicon Valley, which will play host to such distinguished guests as Colin Powell, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a host of prominent venture capitalists.

So what is a Bloom Box exactly? Well, $700,000 to $800,000 will buy you a "corporate sized" unit. Inside the box are a unique kind of fuel cell consisting of ceramic disks coated with green and black "inks". The inks somehow transform a stream of methane (or other hydrocarbons) and oxygen into power, when the box heats up to its operating temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius.

DailyTech - Is the "Magic" Alternative Energy Bloom Box for Real?
 
Indeed, though it's already been in use by Google for a year-and-a-half and by FedEx, WalMart, Google, and E-Bay, as well as 10 other major corporations for almost a year.
 
I saw it on 60 Minutes last night...looks promising but we will have to see where it is in five years
 
It's a shiny box with a whole lot of mystery that's receiving a whole lot of attention this week. The "Bloom Box" a roughly cubic structure has already been embraced by eBay, Google, Staples, FedEx, and Walmart, which extol its savings. But is the new box the solution to all of mankind energy problems or a snake oil remedy for the world's fossil fuel habit?

In an exclusive interview on the CBS television program 60 Minutes, company K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy, gave the public a tantalizing first peek at the secret alternative energy device. And on Wednesday, he will follow that performance up with a major public announcement in Silicon Valley, which will play host to such distinguished guests as Colin Powell, California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and a host of prominent venture capitalists.

So what is a Bloom Box exactly? Well, $700,000 to $800,000 will buy you a "corporate sized" unit. Inside the box are a unique kind of fuel cell consisting of ceramic disks coated with green and black "inks". The inks somehow transform a stream of methane (or other hydrocarbons) and oxygen into power, when the box heats up to its operating temperature of 1,000 degrees Celsius.

DailyTech - Is the "Magic" Alternative Energy Bloom Box for Real?

I saw the report about this Bloombox on Sixty minutes last night. A bit to expensive though right now, I guess the price will come down eventually.
 
We should know more after Wednesday.

That is the official unveiling.
 
Yeah, I saw that, I'll be keeping an eye out for it.

Though if Bloom was publicly traded, I think I'd be willing to take a chance and invest.
 
Of course, since this thread was demoted to the low-placed "energy" category, we may as well be masturbating...

It's a shame, since this invention would touch on so many other areas of life: economic, foreign policy, environmental.

If this device proves to be all that it promises, it will be one of those transformational moments, the end of the Internal Combustion Motor.
 
It says the original design is something he came up with at NASA for power on Mars. As such, it probably is unpatentable.

Sounds cool.

I wonder if it is something like a Stirlling engine? There really isn't enough information in the article to even guess how it would work.
 
It says the original design is something he came up with at NASA for power on Mars. As such, it probably is unpatentable.

Sounds cool.

I wonder if it is something like a Stirlling engine? There really isn't enough information in the article to even guess how it would work.

That's why you need to watch the 60 Minutes link I posted.

The NASA design was not a power plant.

And it has already been patented.
 

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