Look Inside the Bloom Box
This is mysterious fuel cell company Bloom Energy’s gigantic week. After working for more than 8 years and having reportedly raised around $400 million from the investors such as Kleiner Perkins, the company finally will be launching the Bloom Box on Wednesday and in connection to it, the company aired a 60 Minutes segment giving an exclusive look inside the Bloom Box tonight.
You can watch the 60 minute segment to get a clear idea of what exactly the Bloom Box really looks like. If you haven’t then here is a look inside the bloom box for you. It’s similar to an industrial-sized refrigerator, which sucks up its fuel biomass, natural gas etc on one end and oxygen on the other side. Taking a deep look at the “secret sauce” at the back of the Bloom Box, we found that the Bloom bakes sand and cuts it into small squares which further are turned into ceramic that are then coated with black and green “inks.” Using a unique procedure Bloom Box generates these ceramic discs and stacks them jointly mixed together with metal plates of “a contemptible metal alloy.” The bigger the stacks the more power will the Bloom Box generate.
If you aren’t familiar with fuel cells, then know that they are just as the chemical batteries that use the chemical solutions and their reaction to create electricity. There has been several manufacturers manufacturing, fuel cells in the auto industry and consumer electronics for decades, but due to their expensive manufacturing they have been unable to enter into the mainstream.