Wedoany.com Report-Feb 14, California-based Bloom Energy, known for its fuel cell technology, announced a partnership with industrial gas company Chart Industries that will see the companies collaborate on carbon capture technology. Chart, a global company with its U.S. headquarters in Georgia, and Bloom on Feb. 13 said the groups will use natural gas and fuel cells to generate “near zero-carbon, always-on power.”
The companies on Thursday said they will offer the technology to customers, including data centers and manufacturing sites, that want energy solutions “that can be deployed rapidly without compromising reliability or emission goals.”
Chart as part of the partnership is will use its carbon capture experience to process Bloom’s high-purity carbon dioxide (CO2) exhaust stream into outputs that are ready for utilization or sequestration. The companies said the CO2 utilization market “serves as an important near-term bridge to carbon sequestration in locations where sequestration infrastructure is not available or permitted.”
Baseload Power for Manufacturing
“Our partnership with Chart aims to demonstrate that cost-effective, onsite baseload power from natural gas with carbon capture is feasible at scale,” said KR Sridhar, founder, chairman, and CEO at Bloom Energy. “Bloom fuel cells generate electricity without combustion, producing a concentrated CO2 stream that lowers extraction costs, making carbon capture more affordable and efficient.
“For energy-intensive industries like data centers and large manufacturers, this will provide a path to reliable, scalable power while significantly reducing carbon emissions,” said Sridhar. “I am excited about the opportunities this partnership can unlock and the positive impact for our planet.”
Morgan Stanley has said that more than 500 million tonnes per annum of carbon storage capacity is expected to come online within the next five years. Bloom and Chart said, “As sequestration capabilities grow in the U.S. and globally, CO2 utilization provides an immediate pathway to repurpose captured carbon while supporting long-term decarbonization efforts.”
Low-Concentration Emission
Efficient carbon capture depends on the purity of CO2 in the exhaust stream, which varies across power generation technologies, according to the companies. Bloom and Chart said that conventional technologies that generate electricity from natural gas through combustion—such as gas turbines and reciprocating engines——produce exhaust streams with about 5% CO2.
The companies said that “capturing such low-concentration emissions remains technically complex and costly. In contrast, Bloom’s proprietary high-temperature fuel cell technology converts natural gas without combustion, yielding a CO2-rich stream that has 15 times lower mass flow and 10 times the CO2 concentration, making the capture process more efficient and less costly.”
“Chart is a global leader in carbon capture,” said Chart Industries CEO Jill Evanko. “We are excited to bring this expertise to Bloom and their unique platform which is capable of not just producing reliable power but also a concentrated CO2 stream. Working with a market leader in solid oxide fuel cells, we see exciting opportunities for our partnership in both sequestration and utilization markets. We are already working on projects where the captured CO2 will be utilized in the food and beverage industry.”
