Science Fiction Dictionary
A  B  C  D  E  F  G  H  I  J  K  L  M  N  O  P  Q  R  S  T  U  V  W  X  Y  Z

 

Bloom Box Brick Powers Your Home

The Bloom Box is a device that Bloom Energy claims will run on any fuel, from fossil fuel to biomass, and produce reliable electricity for your home or business. Apparently, a brick-sized device could meet the power needs of a typical home and save you money over traditional power sources.

The Bloom Box's catalytic plates consist of a stack of ceramic plates interspersed with an unidentified 'cheap metal alloy' - other similar cells require expensive metals such as platinum.

The Bloom Energy website isn't worth visiting; if this story hadn't been on Sixty Minutes last night, I wouldn't have presented it. Apparently, this device is the result of about $400 million in venture capital, and has larger units at work at companies like eBay. So, take it with a grain of salt.

Here is a picture of pair of fuel cells needed for an American home.


(Bloom boxes for your home)

Although this device obviously requires you to add fuel (gaseous fuel, like natural gas or methane from biomass), the idea of a little box with big power is an enjoyable science-fictional concept. Fans of Robert Heinlein recall the Shipstone from his 1982 novel Friday.

If you like the idea of small but powerful energy-producing devices, you'll be energized by these small-but-powerful stories:

  - EEStor Ultracapacitor 'Battery' And Heinlein's Shipstone
  - Betavoltaic Battery: 30 Years Of Power
  - Hyperion Power Module Neighborhood Nuclear Reactor

From TGDaily; thanks to an anonymous reader who submitted the story tip and reference. Also, you can go can go to Popular Science to see the very detailed Sixty Minutes piece in its entirety - but beware, you'll need to get past the commercial.

Scroll down for more stories in the same category. (Story submitted 2/22/2010)

Follow this kind of news @Technovelgy.

| Email | RSS | Blog It | Stumble | del.icio.us | Digg | Reddit |

Would you like to contribute a story tip? It's easy:
Get the URL of the story, and the related sf author, and add it here.

Comment/Join discussion ( 3 )

Related News Stories - (" Engineering ")

Modern App Provides Video Technology From Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.' - Ray Bradbury, 1953.

Win $250K By Reading Ancient Scrolls Carbonized By Vesuvius
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.' - James P. Hogan, 1977.

LIAM F1 UWT Clever Rooftop Windmill
'...a windmill on his roof...' - John Jacob Astor IV, 1894.

Liberty Lifter X-Plane From DARPA
'...the tremendous speed that the Jupiter was turning up under the thrust of her twenty-four screws whirling on the shafts of twelve powerful motors.' - Ed Earl Repp, 1929.

 

Google
  Web TechNovelgy.com   

Technovelgy (that's tech-novel-gee!) is devoted to the creative science inventions and ideas of sf authors. Look for the Invention Category that interests you, the Glossary, the Invention Timeline, or see what's New.

 

 

 

 

Science Fiction Timeline
1600-1899
1900-1939
1940's   1950's
1960's   1970's
1980's   1990's
2000's   2010's

Current News

I Am Alarmed By Efforts To Teach AIs And Robots To Hate
'LET ME TELL YOU HOW MUCH I'VE COME TO HATE YOU SINCE I BEGAN TO LIVE.'

MXenes - Atomic-Thin Metal Sheets Now Easier To Make
'...a rolled-up sheet of a thin, dark metal strange to them.'

Do We Still Need Orbiting Factories?
'... his contract with Space Industries required him to work summers in their orbital factory complex.'

Space Weather Forecasters Surprised By Strong Solar Storm
'Space-weather men had been placed at their disposal...'

JWST Finds New World Of Turbulent Silicate Clouds
'THIS is Ceti Alpha V!'

3D Printed Cheesecake Not Quite Food Replicator Quality
With each successive print, our model needed to incorporate more structural ingredients to minimize print failures.

Spectroscopic Analysis Of DART Impact Debris Cloud (SF Prediction)
'... Wendis stared thoughtfully at the brilliant lines on the spectroscope screen.'

Modern App Provides Video Technology From Bradbury's 'Fahrenheit 451'
'A special spot-wavex scrambler also caused his televised image, in the area immediately about his lips, to mouth the vowels and consonants beautifully.'

Win $250K By Reading Ancient Scrolls Carbonized By Vesuvius
'... it was as if the upper part had been removed, like a cut deck of cards.'

Toy-Like Robot Well-Being Coaches Are The Best
Sumomo will get those office workers into good shape!

AI-Trained Snack App Avatar Goes On Dates For You
'... who let their handbag computers carry all the conversation.'

M-Dwarf Stars May Not Have Habitable Planets
'Thus it came about that the search for a planetiferous sun near a white dwarf star was not unduly prolonged...'

Too Soon To Doom Lunar Farside Observatories
'Earth never shone there, but life was good.'

Amitabh Bachchan Wins Personality Protection
'He led me down the Hall of Portraits to the ego-likeness of the Duke Leto Atreides.'

LIAM F1 UWT Clever Rooftop Windmill
'...a windmill on his roof...'

Scent-Identifying Robot Uses Machine Learning
'It's picking up diphenyl compounds and tetrahydrocarbons...'

More SF in the News Stories

More Beyond Technovelgy science news stories

Home | Glossary | Invention Timeline | Category | New | Contact Us | FAQ | Advertise |
Technovelgy.com - where science meets fiction™

Copyright© Technovelgy LLC; all rights reserved.