New Delhi: State-run GAIL (India) and U.S-based Bloom Energy on August 22 inked a pact to deploy natural gas-based fuel cell technology to generate electricity with lower emission levels.
The technology is being used by over 100 of the Fortune 500 companies that are diversified majors in FMCG, IT, telecom, retailing and e-commerce. Speaking on the occasion, Oil Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said he would soon send a proposal to Lok Sabha Speaker to do a pilot project in Parliament building where human and other biowaste would be converted into gas or fuel.
The minister said initially this technology will help in providing cleaner power in the urban areas. The solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) technology of Bloom Energy Servers convert fuel into electricity using natural gas as the base fuel to generate reliable and resilient power in a highly efficient non-combustible process that reduces emissions of greenhouse gas and harmful air pollutants, with minimal use of water.
The Bloom Energy Servers could be installed onsite at any operating premises or building and can be plugged into natural gas pipeline to generate uninterrupted, efficient, noise-less power round-the-clock.
GAIL’s subsidiary at Bengaluru is already supplying natural gas for energising a multi-MW Bloom Energy project for a large global technology company at the Technology Park. NITI Aayog CEO Amitabh Kant described the Bloom technology as "path breaking" which can bring a "transformational change" in electricity generation.
