Is Bloom Energy’s Secret Ingredient Zirconia?
Bloom Energy held its big coming out party Sunday night on 60 Minutes. And while founder K.R. Sridhar went over the potential and promise of the company’s Bloom boxes, he got a little vague when it came to what makes it tick. The system converts methane (or other hydrocarbons) into electricity by mixing it with oxygen and then passing the gas mixture through ceramic plates coated with proprietary inks at high temperatures. What are the inks made of? He wouldn’t say. (You can see me in the video too, Mom.) A U.S. patent filed in 2006 and granted to Bloom in 2009, however, seems to indicate yttria stabilized zirconia. Do I know what that is? No. But the invention described in the patent seems to describe the box that Bloom wants to make. The patent application also calls for electrodes comprised of metals in the platinum family. Platinum, one of the world’s more expensive metals, has been the bane of fuel-cell makers. It simply raises the price too high. Platinum is also an element in ca
