Leonard Foster Jr
How did the price of these units skyrocket???
MQ
Chemical reaction, Oxygen meets hydrogen, for the reaction to occur the reaction must occur above the critical reaction temperature....
In the wider world the same reaction is called combustion...
As the reaction is exothermic it becomes self-sustaining....
So really a fuel cell is burning the hydrogen, just that the reaction occurs without any "flame" (just a 700 degree ceramic fuel cell) and the potential across the reaction is harvested as electicity....
Combustion IS a chemical reaction.
Buzz Knapp-Fisher
Fuel cell with de-centralist renewable energy would finish off big toxic control. We should not stand a system run by the rich oil energy men. I am making my own clean energy. One day we all will when this day arrives big toxic will finally lay to rest. Are you interested getting off toxic too?
Jonathan Jenkins
60,000 hours is just under 7 years if I have got my maths right. How much does it cost to replace the "electrolyte membrane" after that time?
coryatjohn
750 W? That's impossibly low for any user in the US. That wouldn't even run our fish tanks, much less provide anything but emergency power for a few light bulbs.
Until these things can produce 10 kW's for $20k, they will be nothing more than a curiosity.
Captain Obvious
At $22K, this will have a very long payback period, maybe never. Looks like they got the basic engineering working, high efficiency and long life. Now they need to get the cost down. That will take some basic R&D.
Buzz, whether I generate electricity with gas or the power company does, that doesn't burn any oil. Actually, fuel cells aren't "green" at all, they are just a little more efficient at using gas. It's greener if I use electricity generated by wind, solar, hydro and even nuclear.
Slowburn
An ICE trigeneration plant will pay for its self and more.
Gary Richardson
A nursery may benefit from piping the CO2 directly to it's starter plants for rapid growth. Perhaps injected into the soil along with safety features (isolation curtains with valved venting) introduced to prevent human asphyxiation.
Arf
They had me going until I read the max output is 750 W. So it couldn't function as a whole house replacement. Could maybe run a decent refrigerator and some lights.
Stephen N Russell
Can't we produce in the US & lower costs. For homes, schools, hotels, convt centers, malls etc. Huge demand for.