General Electric to compete with Bloom Energy?

General Electric (GE), perhaps jealous of all the buzz surrounding the Bloom Box, has recently patented a "core-shell ceramic particulate" and its manufacturing process. What this means, basically, is that GE now has a patented method to prepare a sort of yttria-stabilized zirconia that can be used in a solid oxide fuel cell, which is what the Bloom Box is comprised of.

These yttria-stabilized zirconia are a sort of porous ceramic. Porous ceramics are of scientific and technological interest because of their ability to interact with atoms, ions, and molecules not only at the solid surfaces, but also throughout the bulk of the material. They have a greater surface area than similarly-sized solids. Porosity, by virtue of implying a larger surface area, gives a material an advantage in processes like ion exchange, adsorption, sensing, and catalysis. ration, catalysis, detection, and sensor applications. Porous ceramics also have the advantages of ceramic material. Ceramics have great thermal and chemical stability, solid erosion resistance, and high pressure stability.

This GE patent could mean nothing, or it could mean that the industrial giant is going to throw its full weight behind Bloom Box-like technology. After all, during the now famous 60 Minutes profile of the Bloom Box, Green Tech Media's Michael Kanellos appeared and said that there's a 20% chance we'll have a fuel cell box in our basements within ten years, but "it's going to say 'GE.'" Again, our takeaway is is that solid oxide fuel cell technology is great news for the planet, and great news for technical ceramics manufacturers.

Technical Ceramics in the Bloom Box?

We recently wrote about piezoelectric ceramics in energy harvesting applications, but technical ceramics are being used in an even more exciting (to some) energy application: the Bloom Box. Hailed as a "power plant in a box," the Bloom Box, from Bloom Energy, is basically a refrigerator-sized box that houses a group of fuel cells, which use oxygen, fuel, and heat to create electricity with virtually no emissions. The Bloom Box was invented by K.R. Sridhar, CEO of Bloom Energy. It was originally envisioned as a device to manufacture oxygen on Mars; when the manned Mars trip was scrapped by NASA, Sridhar refocused his efforts, resulting in the Bloom Box (technically the Bloom Energy Server).

So how do technical ceramics play a role in the Bloom Energy Server? Well, it is comprised of solid oxide fuel cells, and the fuel cells are made from technical ceramics. Each Bloom Energy server uses thin white ceramic plates, which are made from sintered modified zirconia. These plates, which are known as ceramic fast ion conductor plates, are then coated with a green ink or a black ink in order to create the anode and cathode portions of the fuel cell. The third part of the fuel cell, the electrolyte, is speculated to be comprised of yttria-stabilized zirconia. Technical ceramics play a huge role in the Bloom Energy Server!

Why is the Bloom Energy Server so ballyhooed? About twenty well-known companies--including Google, FedEx, Walmart, Staples, and eBay--have already integrated it into their power chain. About nine months ago, eBay installed five Bloom Boxes at its San Jose, CA campus; the company has claimed energy-related savings of more than $100,000 in that period. There are concerns over the technology, still. The technology is prohibitively expensive: Each unit costs between $700,000 and $800,000. Sridhar has said he wants to get get costs down to about $2,000 per unit--eventually. They may also have problems providing around-the-clock, 24/7 use. The technology, however, is still in a relatively early stage. The fact that it's out in the real world, offering real world energy savings, is a pretty spectacular notion. If the Bloom Box can scale down to consumer and third world applications, it may well promote and offer new avenues of growth for the technical ceramics industry along the way.

What is Yttrium?

As the work week draws to a close, we thought it would be neat to post a video that delves a little into the origins of Yttrium, an element that's often combined with zirconium to create Yttria-stabilized zirconium, a technical ceramic that's used for a variety of applications.

• Valve components for acids;
• Plugs and pistons;
• Ceramic balls;
• Press tools;
• and wear plates.
  

Georgia Tech Researchers Discovery Mystery Ceramic

Researchers at Georgia Tech have created a new ceramic material that could have revolutionary applications in fuel cell technology. It is still in a nascent, developmental stage, but it could reduce tremendously the cost of creating fuel cells. The high cost of fuel cells has been a barrier to their wider adoption.

The Georgia Tech researchers were supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Basic Energy Science Catalysis Science Program. Using the government money, they developed a new material for use in solid oxide fuel cells (SOFC). A SOFC generally uses a ceramic electrolyte, which in this case is a yttria-stabilized zirconia (YSZ) ceramic. Traditionally, YSZ operates poorly in an SOFC because it is inefficient, clogs easily, and must operate at a high temperature due to its poor conductivity at low temperatures. The new ceramic material, though, gets around all these drawbacks.

The material is a Barium-Zirconium-Cerium-Yttrium-Ytterbium Oxide (BZCYYb), which can be used as a coating on a traditional anode or a replacement for YSZ altogether. It has been lab-proven for performance up to 1,000 hours of continuous use, but it requires more testing to determine its stability and lifespan.

Researcher Meilin Liu says,

“Solid oxide fuel cells offer high energy efficiency, the potential for direct utilization of all types of fuels including renewable biofuels, and the possibility of lower costs since they do not use any precious metals... We are working to reduce the cost of solid oxide fuel cells to make them viable in many new applications, and this new material brings us much closer to doing that.”