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General Electric's Game-Changing Fuel Cell May Spark A Revolution
SeekingAlpha ^ | 29 Jul 2014 | David Alton Clark

Posted on 07/29/2014 10:19:37 AM PDT by shove_it

~snip~ The details behind the new fuel cell

The new fuel cell uses stainless steel in place of platinum and rare metals. Johanna Wellington, advanced technology leader at General Electric Global Research and the head of General Electric's fuel cell business, states:

"The cost challenges associated with the technology have stumped a lot of people for a long time. But we made it work, and we made it work economically. It's a game-changer. The new fuel cell can generate electricity at any location with a supply of natural gas. It can get going quickly, does not need new transmission lines and produces lower emissions than conventional power plants."

This is tremendous news and truly is a game changer if it comes to fruition. How did General Electric do it is the question.

[...]

"The system generates electricity by feeding hydrogen-rich fuel heated to 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit through the channels cut under the anode. Equally hot air travels over the cathode. An electrochemical reaction mediated by the solid electrolyte between the hydrogen in the fuel and the oxygen in the air generates electricity, water, heat and synthetic gas, or syngas. This syngas, which contains residual hydrogen, still holds enough energy for more power generation. The fuel cell feeds the syngas to a Jenbacher engine attached to the fuel cell to generate additional electricity, bringing the electrical efficiency to 65 percent." [...]

(Excerpt) Read more at seekingalpha.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; News/Current Events; Technical
KEYWORDS: ecoterrorism; ecoterrorists; energy; fuelcell; fuelcells; gamechanger; generalmotors; globalwarminghoax; greennewdeal; stainlesssteel; syngas
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1 posted on 07/29/2014 10:19:38 AM PDT by shove_it
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To: shove_it

Cool, but seeing as GE gets so much money from US the Taxpayer the information on how to make this should be publically available via FOIA request...


2 posted on 07/29/2014 10:22:25 AM PDT by GraceG (No, My Initials are not A.B.)
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To: shove_it

I am not going to sigh up to read about the article.


3 posted on 07/29/2014 10:25:03 AM PDT by mountainlion (Live well for those that did not make it back.)
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To: shove_it

Plasma Reformers have been producing large quantities of hydrogen and syngas for many years using garbage as fuel. I saw an operational unit in 2001.


4 posted on 07/29/2014 10:28:25 AM PDT by Ben Mugged (The number one enemy of liberalism is reality.)
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To: shove_it
What's the efficiency of this system compared to a simple gas powered generator alone?

5 posted on 07/29/2014 10:31:31 AM PDT by BitWielder1 (Corporate Profits are better than Government Waste)
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To: mountainlion
I am not going to sigh up to read about the article.
Here is press release from GE. Same words, no wall.

Freedom ≠ Free Stuff☭
I, for one, welcome our new Cybernetic Overlords /.
Mash Dobbshead® for HTML, bop Hello_Cthlhu for XAMPP

6 posted on 07/29/2014 10:33:14 AM PDT by Mycroft Holmes (The fool is always greater than the proof.)
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To: shove_it

It will be a wonderful thing to see a breakthrough that gets the typical household off the grid. Research and development of this nature is worthy of taxpayer support.


7 posted on 07/29/2014 10:33:43 AM PDT by Fester Chugabrew (Even the compassion of the wicked is cruel.)
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To: shove_it

At 65% efficiency, depending on what the minimum size is, it may be a more cost effective solution for office buildings to have a fuel cell than to buy electricity. It may also make feasible the replacement of diesel/electric locomotives with LNG/electric.


8 posted on 07/29/2014 10:36:22 AM PDT by PapaBear3625 (You don't notice it's a police state until the police come for you.)
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To: shove_it

We’ve heard all this before - immediately coming to mind is cold fusion. And then there is “FREE” electricity from space. Ya right!!


9 posted on 07/29/2014 10:48:46 AM PDT by Cheerio (Barry Hussein Soetoro-0bama=The Complete Destruction of American Capitalism)
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To: mountainlion

I won’t sign up either but do wonder if this can be scaled down to a neighborhood size unit or eventually a single home unit. I despise GE and their head honcho Immelt for his corrupt dealings with Obama and their mercury bulb we are forced to use. Did own stock in the past but no more, can not support these crooks.


10 posted on 07/29/2014 10:49:18 AM PDT by Foundahardheadedwoman (God don't have a statute of limitations)
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To: Mycroft Holmes

Thanks for that link.


11 posted on 07/29/2014 10:50:59 AM PDT by shove_it (Directive 10-289 lives)
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To: shove_it

I wonder if it can be scaled DOWN to fit in a Big Rig or automobile?..............


12 posted on 07/29/2014 10:54:02 AM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Red Badger

That’s the holy grail.


13 posted on 07/29/2014 10:55:14 AM PDT by shove_it (Directive 10-289 lives)
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To: shove_it

For those who worship Gaea..............


14 posted on 07/29/2014 11:06:10 AM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: shove_it

Sounds good, but why is my BS meter ringing? The big bugbear with fuel cells over at least 50 years has been electrode poisoning. I kind of doubt they have licked that problem with this high-temperature gizmo.


15 posted on 07/29/2014 11:08:36 AM PDT by expat2
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To: Foundahardheadedwoman
“I despise GE and their head honcho Immelt for his corrupt dealings with Obama and their mercury bulb we are forced to use”

Use LED bulbs. No mercury, and they emit a warmer light than CFLs, IMO.

16 posted on 07/29/2014 11:14:47 AM PDT by riverdawg
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To: shove_it; Mycroft Holmes; PapaBear3625; Ben Mugged

Anyone know how these low cost fuel cells would stack up against lithium ion batteries as far as costs/efficiency/etc for storing energy.

It looks like they’re too big for mobile transportation. But...—Since it looks like these machines require some electricity to run—it may be that they could be used to store energy from solar or wind facilities.

That’s a market that Musk would like to have with his lithium ion batteries—but those babies are expensive. These look much cheaper—except that they have to have a continuous supply of natural gas.


17 posted on 07/29/2014 11:18:08 AM PDT by ckilmer (q)
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To: Fester Chugabrew

If the project isn’t worthy of private support, it isn’t worthy of government support. If the project is worthy of private support, the government should stay out of the way.


18 posted on 07/29/2014 11:21:42 AM PDT by Mr. Lucky
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To: Cheerio

“We’ve heard all this before - immediately coming to mind is cold fusion. And then there is “FREE” electricity from space. Ya right!!”

Yep. I’ve lost count over the decades of all of the miracle battery companies on the verge of going public if they could just get the “manufacturing” issues resolved. And then there’s all the miracle battery companies that actually did go public and then went bankrupt.

And then you have all of your miracle fuel cell breakthroughs. Killer bees, killer sunspots, the killer computer virus, the coffee crop will fail next year, the chocolate crop will fail next year: each of these runs in a two year news cycle on slow news days.


19 posted on 07/29/2014 11:22:42 AM PDT by catnipman (Cat Nipman: Vote Republican in 2012 and only be called racist one more time!)
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To: Ben Mugged

“Plasma Reformers”?

Pretty fancy name for “smoldering garbage in a barrel”.


20 posted on 07/29/2014 11:24:06 AM PDT by MrB (The difference between a Humanist and a Satanist - the latter admits whom he's working for)
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