Decarbonization of energy era and different industrial sectors depends on hydrogen, and a Bloom Vitality demonstration challenge is supporting the gas’s manufacturing via a sophisticated electrolyzer system.
Using hydrogen is taken into account crucial to the decarbonization of the vitality sector, together with different industries equivalent to transportation, chemical manufacturing, and manufacturing.
Many corporations are taking a look at methods to provide hydrogen extra effectively, to reap the benefits of the gas’s potential to offer flexibility to vitality programs. Bloom Energyan organization with roots within the U.S. house program, is taken into account a pioneer of electrolyzer expertise. The San Jose, California-based group right now is thought for its strong oxide gas cells that produce on-site electrical energy, serving business and industrial enterprises, together with manufacturing amenities and knowledge facilities, and supporting mixed warmth and energy programs.
Bloom Vitality final yr started producing hydrogen from what the corporate calls the “World’s Most Efficient Electrolyzer and Largest Solid Oxide Electrolyzer System,” positioned on the Nationwide Aeronautics and Area Administration’s (NASA’s) Ames Analysis Middle, on the historic Moffett Discipline analysis facility in Mountain View, California. Bloom has stated the “high-temperature, high-efficiency unit produces 20–25% more hydrogen per megawatt (MW) than commercially demonstrated lower temperature electrolyzers such as proton electrolyte membrane (PEM) or alkaline.”
Ravi Prasher, Bloom Vitality’s chief expertise officer and a frontrunner of the challenge, advised POWER“The amount of electricity needed by the electrolyzer to make hydrogen will be the most dominant factor in determining hydrogen production cost. For this reason, the efficiency of the electrolyzer, the electricity needed to produce a kilogram of hydrogen, becomes the most critical figure of merit.”
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1. Bloom Vitality’s 4-MW electrolyzer demonstration challenge at NASA’s Ames Analysis Middle in California is proving the business viability of expertise that may produce extra hydrogen per megawatt of electrical energy. Courtesy: Bloom Vitality |
Prasher stated, “This 4-MW demonstration (Determine 1) on the NASA Ames Analysis Middle proves that the vitality effectivity of our large-scale electrolyzer is just like the small-scale system examined at INL (Idaho Nationwide Laboratory) highlighting the energy of our modular structure. The electrolyzer product is leveraging the Bloom platform know-how of greater than 1 GW of strong oxide gas cells deployed within the discipline and offering roughly 1 trillion cumulative cell working hours.
“The same technology platform that can convert natural gas and hydrogen to electricity can be used reversibly to convert electricity to hydrogen,” stated Prasher. “With Bloom’s high-efficiency, high-temperature solid oxide electrolyzers, we are one step closer to a decarbonized future powered by low-cost clean hydrogen.” The significance of Bloom’s analysis and this electrolyzer demonstration, which showcases the maturity, effectivity, and business readiness of Bloom’s strong oxide expertise for large-scale, clear hydrogen manufacturing, helps its selection as POWER’s 2024 Hydrogen Award recipient.
A Decarbonized Future Powered by Hydrogen
The 4-MW Bloom Electrolyzer delivers the equal of greater than 2.4 metric tonnes per day of hydrogen. It was constructed, put in, and entered operation in a span of simply two months. Bloom officers have stated the challenge has “demonstrated the viability of a decarbonized future powered by low-cost clean hydrogen.”
Bloom’s electrolyzer expertise can hint its historical past again to work carried out as a part of NASA’s Mars Area Program greater than twenty years in the past. Dr. KR Sridhar, founder, chairman, and CEO of Bloom Vitality, and his workforce have been charged with making a expertise that might maintain life on Mars. They constructed electrolyzers able to producing oxygen and gas from solar energy on that planet, and operated the system within the reverse path as a gas cell to provide electrical energy.
The group realized the impression of their expertise, and based Bloom Vitality in 2001. Curiously, the demonstration challenge at Moffett Discipline is on the identical website the place Bloom started its operations greater than 20 years in the past, working in a 7,000-square-foot storage.
Bloom in an overview of the challenge advised POWER“Scalable and considerable clear hydrogen manufacturing from electrolysis was beforehand hindered by a single variable: the price of electrical energy. It was due to this fact crucial for our net-zero future that hydrogen electrolyzers devour as little electrical energy as doable to help the monetary viability of unpolluted hydrogen.
“Bloom Energy met this moment with promising results for the clean energy economy of the future. Unlike conventional lower-temperature electrolyzers, such as proton electrolyte membrane or alkaline, Bloom’s high-temperature electrolyzer generates 20-25% more hydrogen per megawatt, demonstrating its superior performance and commercial viability. The demonstration at NASA’s Ames Research Center proved that the world record-setting levels of electrical efficiency achieved by the Bloom electrolyzer’s clean hydrogen production at the Idaho National Laboratory’s Dynamic Energy Testing and Integration Laboratory are also replicable in large-scale, commercial applications. Put simply, the demonstration represents a pivotal moment for the future clean hydrogen economy by cementing the commercial viability of solid oxide technology’s large-scale applications in industrial settings.”
Bloom officers advised POWER the demonstration at Ames Analysis Middle is distinct from its 100-kW demonstration at INL, although it does construct on the findings from that challenge. The corporate stated, “Specifically, the INL project tested the efficiency of Bloom’s electrolyzer using steam and load simulations that replicate conditions found in nuclear power plant settings. While that effort demonstrated a small-scale installation of Bloom’s electrolyzer can produce clean hydrogen at a record-setting 37.7 kWh per kilogram of hydrogen and with 88.5% lower heating value to DC (direct-current), the effort (at Ames) demonstrated that same level of efficiency was attained by a large-scale installation thanks primarily to the strength of the product’s unique modular architecture.”
Stable Oxide Electrolyzer Know-how
Bloom stated the success of the demonstration at Ames helps continued deployment of the corporate’s Stable Oxide Electrolyzer (SOEC) expertise, which it’s utilizing to develop inexperienced hydrogen—hydrogen produced from renewable vitality—around the globe along with manufacturing in California, the place the electrolyzer is manufactured.
Bloom late final yr introduced a partnership with Southern California Gasoline, as that utility powers a portion of the California Institute of Know-how’s grid with hydrogen. The corporate advised POWER: “Blending existing infrastructure with Bloom’s SOEC technology and fuel cell, we’ve created a microgrid to deliver resilient, affordable, and clean power to one of the Golden State’s leading educational institutions. Specifically, the project takes water from Caltech’s service line and runs it through our electrolyzer using grid energy to create hydrogen for injection into Caltech’s natural gas infrastructure before ultimately being converted to electricity for consumption around campus.”
A number of months in the past, Bloom and SK ecoplant, an engineering and vitality options supplier and subsidiary of South Korean conglomerate SK Group, introduced a large-scale, 1.8-MW inexperienced hydrogen demonstration utilizing Bloom’s electrolyzer on Jeju Island, South Korea. The demonstration will start subsequent yr, and goals to provide inexperienced hydrogen for gas to help the transportation sector at the side of the Korea Southern Energy Co. and native governments.
Bloom Vitality and Shell earlier this yr introduced a groundbreaking decarbonization research utilizing Bloom’s SOEC expertise. The collaboration goals to develop replicable SOEC programs that will produce clear hydrogen, probably to be used at Shell property across the globe. Bloom advised POWER“This study represents yet another pivotal moment for Bloom as its hydrogen electrolyzer is deployed by hard-to-abate industries in search of solutions that can simultaneously reduce carbon footprints and sustain economic growth due to its world record-setting efficiency.”
‘Positive Outlook’ for Hydrogen
Bloom officers advised POWER the corporate has a “positive outlook” for the hydrogen economic system, “in large part due to the milestones met by development of new, exciting, and more efficient technologies,” together with its SOEC expertise. The group additionally acknowledged that authorities intervention and help is probably going essential to help “meaningful advances in this space.”
Sridhar famous the Biden administration’s current resolution to spur growth of seven regional clear hydrogen hubs throughout the U.S., a “$7 billion investment in clean hydrogen (that) reflects the federal government’s confidence that the hydrogen economy can and will deliver a myriad of carbon emissions reduction strategies, perhaps none more important and pressing than power generation.” Bloom Vitality is a part of 4 of these hubs.
“We were honored that our products and technologies were included in four of the proposals submitted to DOE (the Department of Energy) and we thank (California Gov. Gavin Newsom) for his leadership for securing nearly one-fifth of available funding for projects in California,” stated Rick Beuttel, head of Enterprise Improvement at Bloom. “Our manufacturing and technology teams in Fremont, California, and Newark, Delaware, are ready to help advance this program and deliver on its promise.”
Sridhar stated the challenge at Ames “is a major milestone for reaching net-zero goals” via the usage of hydrogen. “Hydrogen will be essential for storing intermittent and curtailed energy and for decarbonizing industrial energy use,” he stated. “Commercially viable electrolyzers are the key to unlocking the energy storage puzzle, and solid oxide electrolyzers offer inherently superior technology and economic advantages. Bloom Energy, as the global leader in solid oxide technology, is proud to share this exciting demonstration with the world: our product is ready for prime time.”
—Darrell Proctor is a senior affiliate editor for POWER.
