Bloom Energy and Baker Hughes, an energy technology company, agreed to collaborate on the potential commercialization and deployment of energy technology.
Bloom operates a fuel cell production plant in Newark.
Baker Hughes and Bloom Energy will begin collaborating immediately, to launch pilot projects over the next two to three years and fully commercialize applications, products, and solutions shortly thereafter, a release stated.
The companies will focus on three areas:
Integrated power solutions: By leveraging Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell technology (SOFC) and Baker Hughes’ lightweight gas turbine technology, the companies intend to provide cleaner energy generation, waste heat recovery, and grid-independent power for customers.
Bloom Energy’s efficient and low emissions fuel cells and Baker Hughes’ efficient and flexible NovaLT gas turbines – which can run on up to 100 percent hydrogen – along with heat recovery turbines can create resilient microgrids stated.
Integrated hydrogen solutions: The companies will explore opportunities to pair Bloom Energy’s solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOEC) to produce clean hydrogen with Baker Hughes’ compression technology for efficient production, compression, transport, and delivery of hydrogen.
Waste heat utilization for steam generation will also be assessed to increase the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of hydrogen production.
The companies will look at applications such as blending hydrogen into natural gas pipelines and on-site hydrogen production for industrial use. The efforts are geared toward accelerating the transition to the hydrogen economy.
Bloom Energy’s fuel cell technology coupled with Baker Hughes’ compression technology could facilitate faster adoption of hydrogen in process industries such as steel refining. The use of heat recovery from the steel-making process could deliver higher overall system efficiencies.
Mutual technical collaborations: The companies will assess opportunities to leverage Baker Hughes’ broad technology portfolio and Bloom Energy’s expertise.
“The path to net-zero carbon emissions must include partnerships and collaboration,” said Uwem Ukpong, executive vice president of regions, alliances, and enterprise sales at Baker Hughes. “At the core of our collaboration agreement with Bloom Energy is the potential to develop integrated technology offerings for commercialization and deployment of smarter, cleaner, and more economic energy solutions. It’s a great example of how Baker Hughes is strategically pursuing ways to advance new energy frontiers and invest for growth in the industrial marketplace.”
“We believe that in combining our industry-leading technologies and expertise to provide differentiated and customized integrated solutions to customers, we can accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies,” said Azeez Mohammed, executive vice president of international business for Bloom Energy. “This collaboration will serve as a model of how we need to look for innovative ways in which we can work together and integrate technologies and capabilities to achieve our common goals for global decarbonization and resiliency.”
Baker Hughes is best known as an oilfield service company. After being spun off from GE, it has moved toward using its technology to lower carbon emissions.
