Bloom Energy to Preview Highly-Efficient Solution for Generating Clean Electricity From Landfill, Waste Water & Agricultural ...
September 10 2018 - 4:05PM
Business Wire
Bloom Energy (NYSE:BE) will preview a new high-efficiency, Bloom
Energy Server-based solution for generating clean electricity from
waste biogas at the Bay Area Air Quality Management District
Climate Tech Marketplace, which is an affiliate event of the Global
Climate Action Summit in San Francisco on September 13th.
This press release features multimedia. View
the full release here:
https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180910005855/en/
Bloom Energy Server (Photo: Business
Wire)
Bloom will show how a standard Bloom Energy Server integrated
with a new biogas clean-up module can generate clean electricity
from biogas emitted by landfill, agricultural, waste and water
treatment processes. The prototype clean-up module will clean the
biogas of moisture and contaminants, enabling its use in fuel cells
while dramatically reducing methane emissions in the process. Bloom
expects to begin testing the new solution with customers
imminently.
Methane emitted from landfill, agriculture, waste and water
management has 25 times greater impact on climate change than
carbon dioxide emissions1. The California Energy Commission2
estimates the State’s annual methane emissions at equivalent to 40
million metric tons of carbon dioxide, which is equivalent to the
emissions generated by 10 coal-fired power plants in a year, or
from burning 44 billion pounds of coal. In 2016, methane accounted
for about 10 percent of all U.S. greenhouse gas emissions from
human activities.
Efforts to capture and utilize biogas with fuel cells for heat
and power generation have largely disappointed in the past. The
complexity and cost of removing moisture and contaminants that
affect fuel cell performance; the low efficiency with which legacy
systems convert biogas to electricity, and the poor reliability and
short life-expectancy of legacy fuel cell systems have produced
disappointing outcomes.
As a result, as of September 2017, only 18 of 980 large
California dairies and 157 of 311 California landfills capture and
use their methane emissions and only 55% of biogas extracted from
California’s landfills is being used to generate power. The rest of
the generated methane is emitted to the environment or flared.
Flaring still emits methane due to incomplete gas combustion,
carbon dioxide from combustion, and ‘black carbon’ and criteria
pollutants, major contributors to climate change and human health
issues.
The goal of the Bloom Energy Server with integrated gas clean-up
module is to solve three issues historically associated with fuel
cell-based electricity generation from biogas.
- High Efficiency, Guaranteed
Output – Legacy designs for biogas-powered fuel cells had low
levels of efficiency that generated relatively small amounts of
electricity. Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell technology has
attained the highest efficiency for converting natural gas or
biogas to electricity (65%) of any commercial solution.
- High Reliability – Legacy fuel
cell designs were monolithic. When cells degraded and reached their
useful end-of-life, entire systems simply stopped working. By
contrast, the modular design of Bloom Energy Servers allows them to
be “hot swapped,” or serviced without interruption. This enables
Bloom to guarantee long term system efficiency and output, such as
over the term of a 15 or 20-year power purchase agreement.
- Integrated Gas Clean-Up –
Whereas legacy designs often placed the burden of removing
moisture, sulphur, siloxanes and other contaminants from biogas
upon the customer, Bloom Energy’s solution features an integrated
gas clean-up module, the power draw from which only minimally
impacts overall system efficiency.
Deploying next generation fuel cell technology across
California’s landfill, agriculture and waste water treatment plants
has the potential to dramatically reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Bloom Energy estimates that for every megawatt of electricity
generated by a Bloom Energy Server from waste biogas, 7.7 million
pounds of CO2 emissions, 10,500 pounds of NOx and 4,500 pounds of
SO2 emissions could be avoided annually.
According to the California Energy Commission, the total
economically feasible renewable gas potential in the State is 79.4
million MMBtu per year. This would be sufficient to generate 1.26
GW of electricity using Bloom Energy Servers. This is approximately
equivalent to the power generated by one of the two Diablo Canyon
nuclear reactors with a zero carbon footprint and a substantial
reduction of harmful emissions in densely populated areas.
Biogas-fed Bloom Energy Servers would produce always-on,
reliable base-load power. This is a key differentiator to
renewables such as wind and solar whose power generation is
naturally intermittent based on light and weather conditions.
Demonstration Details at-a-Glance
WHAT: Preview of Bloom Energy Biogas-powered Electricity
Generation from Waste Methane Demonstration at the Bay Area Air
Quality Management District Climate Tech Marketplace
WHERE: Bay Area Metro Center, 375 Beale Street, San
Francisco, CA
WHEN: Thursday, September 13th, 2018, from 4pm-7pm PT
About Bloom Energy
Bloom Energy’s mission is to make clean, reliable, and
affordable energy for everyone in the world. The Company’s product,
the Bloom Energy Server, is capable of delivering highly reliable,
uninterrupted, 24x7 constant electric power that is clean and
sustainable. Bloom’s customers include twenty-five of the Fortune
100 companies and leaders in manufacturing, high-tech, healthcare,
retail and other industries. For more information, visit
www.bloomenergy.com.
1.
Environmental Protection Agency. “Basic
Information about Landfill Gas”
https://www.epa.gov/lmop/basic-information-about-landfill-gas
2.
California Energy Commission 2017 Draft
Integrated Energy Report
https://www.energy.ca.gov/2017_energypolicy/
View source
version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180910005855/en/
Bloom EnergyDavid McCulloch,
925-487-2866David.McCulloch@bloomenergy.comorMark Mesler,
+1-408-543-1743Mark.Mesler@bloomenergy.com
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