pwr_july-2024 - 22

HYDROGEN AWARD
Efficiency in Production at Heart
of Bloom Technology
Courtesy: Bloom Energy
Decarbonization of power generation and other industrial sectors relies on hydrogen,
and a Bloom Energy demonstration project is supporting the fuel's production
through an advanced electrolyzer system.
Darrell Proctor
T
he use of hydrogen is considered
critical to the decarbonization of the
energy sector, along with other industries
such as transportation, chemical
production, and manufacturing.
Many companies are looking at ways
to produce hydrogen more efficiently,
to take advantage of the fuel's potential
to provide flexibility to energy systems.
Bloom Energy, a company with roots in
the U.S. space program, is considered a
pioneer of electrolyzer technology. The
San Jose, California-based group today
is known for its solid oxide fuel cells that
produce on-site electricity, serving commercial
and industrial enterprises, including
manufacturing facilities and data
centers, and supporting combined heat
and power systems.
Bloom Energy last year began generating
hydrogen from what the company
calls the " World's Most Efficient Electrolyzer
and Largest Solid Oxide Electrolyzer
System, " located at the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration's
(NASA's) Ames Research Center, at the
historic Moffett Field research facility
in Mountain View, California. Bloom
has said the " high-temperature, highefficiency
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 Energy's chief
technology officer and a leader of the project,
told POWER, " The amount of electricity
needed by the electrolyzer to make
22
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. "
Prasher said, " This 4-MW demonstration
[Figure 1] at the NASA Ames
Research Center proves that the energy
efficiency of our large-scale electrolyzer
is similar to the small-scale system tested
at INL [Idaho National Laboratory]
highlighting the strength of our modular
architecture. The electrolyzer product
is leveraging the Bloom platform knowhow
of more than 1 GW of solid oxide
fuel cells deployed in the field and providing
approximately 1 trillion cumulative
cell operating hours.
" The same technology platform that
can convert natural gas and hydrogen to
electricity can be used reversibly to convert
electricity to hydrogen, " said 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
importance of Bloom's research and this
electrolyzer demonstration, which showcases
the maturity, efficiency, and commercial
readiness of Bloom's solid oxide
technology for large-scale, clean hydrogen
production, supports its choice as POWER's
2024 Hydrogen Award recipient.
A Decarbonized Future Powered
by Hydrogen
The 4-MW Bloom Electrolyzer delivers
the equivalent of more than 2.4 metric
tonnes per day of hydrogen. It was built,
installed, and entered operation in a span
of just two months. Bloom officials have
said the project has " demonstrated the
viability of a decarbonized future powered
by low-cost clean hydrogen. "
Bloom's electrolyzer technology can
trace its history back to work performed
as part of NASA's Mars Space Program
more than two decades ago. Dr. KR Sridhar,
founder, chairman, and CEO of Bloom
Energy, and his team were charged with
creating a technology that could sustain
life on Mars. They built electrolyzers capable
of producing oxygen and fuel from
solar power on that planet, and operated
the device in the reverse direction as a
fuel cell to produce electricity.
The group realized the impact of their
1. Bloom Energy's 4-MW electrolyzer demonstration
project at NASA's Ames Research Center
in California is proving the commercial viability of
technology that can produce more hydrogen per
megawatt of electricity. Courtesy: Bloom Energy
www.powermag.com
technology, and founded Bloom Energy
in 2001. Interestingly, the demonstration
project at Moffett Field is at the same
site where Bloom began its operations
more than 20 years ago, working in a
7,000-square-foot garage.
POWER | July 2024
http://www.powermag.com
pwr_july-2024

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