I'm far from being well versed in thermodynamics or electrochemistry. My research found the electrical efficiency is very similar to Bloom but slightly less. Blooms I believe is upper 50% lifetime efficiency vs FCEL 43-44% lifetime.
FCEL has only been doing it since 2023 commercially and they say they can increase the output to 80 MW already.
It looks like FuelCell has a shorter lifespan of 7 years vs 10 Boom and degrades a little faster vs Bloom.
Fuelcell platform
"This platform is a 250 kW power generation module
enabling 80% combined heat and power efficiency.
This module can be powered by different sources
including natural gas, biogas, hydrogen or blends and
maintains the potential to use 100% pure hydrogen for
I like Net Power NPWR for more near-term scale. The CEO on an old conference call has said they can work for hyperscalers. They are already doing utility size scale
How is their ramp time? can they respond quick enough under a minute or under 20 seconds? I think the BE tech is faster. I couldnt find this data easily. Do you wanna write to the CEO if he would do a podcast with you? You are a big account so maybe he will be interested.
I found an actual Fuel Cell source with Perplexity Pro. It's 20 years old though. I'm not interested in podcasts. I'm not really a podcast kind of guy. I don't know enough about their technology or the industry to ask questions on fly
Fast load recovery capability: FuelCell Energy successfully demonstrated rapid load return on full-size Stack FA-100-3 with ramp rates up to 150 A/min, achieving 90% of rated load in less than 5 minutes. During testing, the stack ramped from 20 mA/cm² to 110 mA/cm² (90% load) in under 5 minutes, with the final increase from 110 to 120 mA/cm² conducted at a slower 3 A/min rate over 26 minutes.
Typical ramp rates: Earlier MCFC demonstrations reported ramp rates of approximately 0.08% of rated power per second (equivalent to about 0.2 kW/s for a 250 kW system, or roughly 5% per minute). Design targets allowed ramping at around 150 A/min per stack to reach approximately 90% load in under 5 minutes from part-load conditions.
Product specifications: FuelCell Energy's commercial DFC systems are designed for ramping to rated power in 5 minutes from standby conditions. For the King County installation, the design ramp rate was 2 kW per minute with a slower cold-start ramp of 0.5 kW per minute.
Operational Constraints
Load step capability: Stack FA-100-2 demonstrated the ability to handle instantaneous load fluctuations of 35% at 200 kW and 50% at 150 kW power levels for short durations (5 seconds or less) without process adjustment. For grid disruptions lasting longer than 5 seconds, fuel flow adjustment ("fuel following") is required to manage anode exhaust oxidizer temperatures.
Thermal management limits: While the electrochemical response of MCFC stacks is inherently
I have perplexity pro too and I know about this. The problem is that this source was 20 years ago. Nothing in here is valuable insight to me. We gotta refresh our knowledge about this tech.
Excellent idea, thanks for sharing. Net net with great possible tailwinds.
How good do you think their tech really is when compared to BE? I keep hearing their tech is subpar. INterested on having a conversation about it.
I'm far from being well versed in thermodynamics or electrochemistry. My research found the electrical efficiency is very similar to Bloom but slightly less. Blooms I believe is upper 50% lifetime efficiency vs FCEL 43-44% lifetime.
FCEL has only been doing it since 2023 commercially and they say they can increase the output to 80 MW already.
It looks like FuelCell has a shorter lifespan of 7 years vs 10 Boom and degrades a little faster vs Bloom.
Fuelcell platform
"This platform is a 250 kW power generation module
enabling 80% combined heat and power efficiency.
This module can be powered by different sources
including natural gas, biogas, hydrogen or blends and
maintains the potential to use 100% pure hydrogen for
the best efficiencies and environmental impact.
Solid Oxide-Based Electrolysis Platform
This platform can deliver up to 600 kg hydrogen
per day using 1.1 MW power input. It operates at
up to 90% HHV electrical efficiency, which can
be increased to 100% HHV efficiency when using
external heat input as part of the power source."
https://www.fuelcellenergy.com/hubfs/fuelcell-energy-2023-sustainability-report.pdf
I like Net Power NPWR for more near-term scale. The CEO on an old conference call has said they can work for hyperscalers. They are already doing utility size scale
Gotta check them out. Very interesting idea.
Did you check this tweet of mine from 2 weeks ago. This is a pretty savage number.
https://x.com/hiteshkar/status/1978141787609837953
Ofcoruse it's since 2003, but its gotta be very interesting. Would you like to hop on a call?
https://www.fuelcellenergy.com/blog/fuel-cell-scalability
This says they can integrate with battery storage and solar too. In theory it is scalable.
How is their ramp time? can they respond quick enough under a minute or under 20 seconds? I think the BE tech is faster. I couldnt find this data easily. Do you wanna write to the CEO if he would do a podcast with you? You are a big account so maybe he will be interested.
I found an actual Fuel Cell source with Perplexity Pro. It's 20 years old though. I'm not interested in podcasts. I'm not really a podcast kind of guy. I don't know enough about their technology or the industry to ask questions on fly
Fast load recovery capability: FuelCell Energy successfully demonstrated rapid load return on full-size Stack FA-100-3 with ramp rates up to 150 A/min, achieving 90% of rated load in less than 5 minutes. During testing, the stack ramped from 20 mA/cm² to 110 mA/cm² (90% load) in under 5 minutes, with the final increase from 110 to 120 mA/cm² conducted at a slower 3 A/min rate over 26 minutes.
Typical ramp rates: Earlier MCFC demonstrations reported ramp rates of approximately 0.08% of rated power per second (equivalent to about 0.2 kW/s for a 250 kW system, or roughly 5% per minute). Design targets allowed ramping at around 150 A/min per stack to reach approximately 90% load in under 5 minutes from part-load conditions.
Product specifications: FuelCell Energy's commercial DFC systems are designed for ramping to rated power in 5 minutes from standby conditions. For the King County installation, the design ramp rate was 2 kW per minute with a slower cold-start ramp of 0.5 kW per minute.
Operational Constraints
Load step capability: Stack FA-100-2 demonstrated the ability to handle instantaneous load fluctuations of 35% at 200 kW and 50% at 150 kW power levels for short durations (5 seconds or less) without process adjustment. For grid disruptions lasting longer than 5 seconds, fuel flow adjustment ("fuel following") is required to manage anode exhaust oxidizer temperatures.
Thermal management limits: While the electrochemical response of MCFC stacks is inherently
I have perplexity pro too and I know about this. The problem is that this source was 20 years ago. Nothing in here is valuable insight to me. We gotta refresh our knowledge about this tech.