4 ms·

As they mentioned it can work on variety of fuel sources, they can probably create Gasoline -> Fuel Cell -> Electricity -> Motor type powertrain and create very

• bbot 17y ago
  Doubtful. Solid oxide fuel cells are very efficient, but have lousy power density. A big cabinet full of Bloom fuel cells does 25 kilowatts. That's a lot of electricity, but it's only 33 horsepower. You would need two cabinets and a bank of capacitors, for lousy performance. Then you would need a tank of compressed natural gas, which also doesn't have awesome power density numbers, after you spend the power to compress it. And, of course, solid oxide fuel cells aren't a turn-the-key-and-go kind of power source. They run at 1000C, and take an hour to get that warm, all while burning fuel. More general concerns: It's supposed to be multi-fuel, and is designed for third world use. But solid oxide fuel cells are notorious for having problems with catalyst poisoning. How have they solved that? They mention that it's reversible, in that it can take air and electricity, and produce fuel. This is troubling, in that it is utter bullshit. No fuel cell can do this. And of course, how is this green? It burns natural gas! It may be greener than a gas turbine power plant, but it still produces carbon dioxide.
• tjmc 17y ago
  Question for mods - why was bbot's reply here and elsewhere on this thread killed? Both times he's simply raised the very valid point that fuel cells don't run backwards. There are some woefully uninformed comments on this thread already. A little education would help.