I have to preface these post with a shout out: the images are from Kyle Roth, a local photographer who does beautiful work and who is a big champion of Cleveland, be sure to read his blog at North Coast Lifestyle and Epstein Design Partners.
Benson Lee of Technology Management Inc, took the stage for his talk, Solving Global Social Problems with Fuel Cell Technology. He started by talking about how fuel cells work. A 2 inch ceramic disc creates electricity through a chemical reaction. He held up a unit the size of a cell phone or pop can, that was a personal generating unit. Then he unveiled a home unit. The home unit fuel cell is less than the sizw of an AC condenser unit and will provide enough power for the average home. Being a clean energy source, they can be located inside a home. They generate heat as well as electricity and thus can serve two purposes at once.
Recently 60 MINUTES did a story on fuel cells. Technology Management, Inc is one of the top 12 manufacturers featured in this story. This is not really new technology, it has been around since the early 1800s. We have the problem in the US of not really understanding fuel cells, and thus we do not ask for them. Thus, they have not been really improved upon, as we had access to plenty of dirty combustion technology. THis lack of improvement has led to costs remaining relatively high, despite being 90% efficient.
Fuel cells still need fuel to make them work. What is great about them is that they provide clean, reliable energy production despite atmospheric conditions. And they will operate on a variety of fuels. Of course they will work with hydrogen, gasoline, oils, etc, but they will also work on the gas from an anaerobic digestor that can use organic waste (including human waste) as its basic fuel. There are also cheap reliable plants that are high in oil content that can be easily grown as a fuel source. The advantage of fuel cell technology is that you are able to generate power where it is needed. You ca provide lectricity in remote villages, without a huge power plant or miles of high tension power lines. This could allow use of electricity for health care in regions where some 228 infants die every hour from diarrhea. Reliable electricity could mean power pumps to make water safer. It could mean simple antibiotics in regions that lack refrigeration.
Technology Management is pricing them for the NGO market. Their aim is to make a living and make the world better. Partnerships with others makes for good finaincial returns. Through economies of scale, they can find ways to make fuel cells cheaper. If they sell to NGOs who can help the poor, then use their profits to train more NGOs to use them, they will only drive more need for them. Like crack for a better world. The best part is that nothing new needs to be invented. Fuel cells can make the world a better place by providing clean electrical energy in parts of the world where other forms of electricity simply cannot work.
Visit their site to find out more! And watch the video below to get a simple overview of how fuel cells work.
Tags: electricity, Energy, TEDxCLE
