If this technology works, it could save us burning fuel.
Few big businesses are testing it and seem to be happy.
See what the Bloom box is about

It seems like a thing, but:
a. it is fuel cell, one of many on the market,
b. it is not clean, unfortunately, because it "burns" carbon fuel, and that is not clean as it generates (CO2)
c. to be clean it needs hydrogen, but you have to generate it, so the overall efficiency drops.


He has a secret formula to replace the membrane in between ceramic plates. Nice because membranes are notorious for clogging and failing.

Unfortunately you need to get fuel to it, so if you are to disperse these among the people, it has to be where the gas lines are. Not much chop if you are away from city centres and suburbs.

Ok, the fuel cell efficiency is somewhere in 80% (from memory) efficient as opposed to 20-30 for petrol motors and 30% for diesel, however the saving is a factor of 2 to 5. That is nowhere near Nuc or fusion, but any little bit helps

Me thinks out loud

Every step toward cleaner energy is a step forward.
This may not be the ultimate solution, but at least this is a step in the good direction (If it's working).
I remember years ago when researchers claimed to have achieved cold fusion. This was a hoax.
At least with this one, some units are already in production with reputable businesses. The only problem is that these companies are only interested to save $ on energy. I don't think they are looking for a cleaner one.

Yes, I agree. Unfortunately most people tend to look at this kind of a thing on the basis on how much energy or money they will save once the THING is cheap enough for them to install.

Unfortunately not many devices like this pass cradle-to-grave tests, ie. the amount of energy is needed to make it, run it and dispose of it vs the amount of energy they will actually save. I believe that not many will get into black no matter how promising they look. In this case making those silica ceramic plates from quartz is not cheap (energy wise).

I hope that this is at least twice as efficient as piping grid power... if so, I would be happy to have one. Until then, grid electricity is the most efficient energy source we have.

Cold fusion is something that is very embarrassing for us chemists. The guys who suggested it were the two most credible electrochemists of the time. We all had to take notice, no matter how silly is sounded.

Mind you, it may be possible ... starts to read a Star Trek book and smiles