A couple years ago, you couldn't go to a single tech site w/o reading about the Bloom Box.
But, what happened to them? They seem to have been swept under the rug.
But, what happened to them? They seem to have been swept under the rug.
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There are serious problems with the Bloom Box, particularly those
related to the economics of the whole thing.
First of all, the initial high price of the unit plus the cost of fuel to run
it results in an unacceptable cost per watt. Back in 2006 the cost was
$7/watt, and with continuously rising prices for oil and gas to run the
thing, that cost would probably be closer to $10-11/watt today. (That's
$1000 to run every 100 watt light bulb in the home!)
Secondly, the construction of the fuel cells requires some very rare and
very expensive heavy metals. This was acceptable when constructing
a couple of demo units for large customers, but there is not enough supply of metals like Scandium, Yttrium, and Platinum in the whole world to make the technology feasible for mass production.
Finally, they downplayed the fact that the fuel cells would have to be
replaced after a certain number of years (10), which means another large
expense for each user down the road. It's not like just going out and buying another light bulb.
Chances are, the whole project was probably just a well marketed idea that was
really designed to garner government grants and venture capital in order
to make the original inventors and investors rich, but the idea behind it
was doomed to failure from the start.
(much like the GM Volt)
related to the economics of the whole thing.
First of all, the initial high price of the unit plus the cost of fuel to run
it results in an unacceptable cost per watt. Back in 2006 the cost was
$7/watt, and with continuously rising prices for oil and gas to run the
thing, that cost would probably be closer to $10-11/watt today. (That's
$1000 to run every 100 watt light bulb in the home!)
Secondly, the construction of the fuel cells requires some very rare and
very expensive heavy metals. This was acceptable when constructing
a couple of demo units for large customers, but there is not enough supply of metals like Scandium, Yttrium, and Platinum in the whole world to make the technology feasible for mass production.
Finally, they downplayed the fact that the fuel cells would have to be
replaced after a certain number of years (10), which means another large
expense for each user down the road. It's not like just going out and buying another light bulb.
Chances are, the whole project was probably just a well marketed idea that was
really designed to garner government grants and venture capital in order
to make the original inventors and investors rich, but the idea behind it
was doomed to failure from the start.
(much like the GM Volt)