Save water, reduce greenhouse emissions; ride on the green road carved by Fujitsu

Japanese Electronic Giant Fujitsu plans to walk on a green road for its contribution towards the safety of the planet. Having bought a 200 KW hydrogen fuel cell from UTC, the company aims at providing power and heat to sprint the buildings covering its campus in California.

This single fuel cell is capable to offer two different types of energies to the plant. Hydrogen produced through burning methane with steam is flowed into a proton exchange membrane, thereby generating electricity that power computers and other electrical paraphernalia within the facility.

The process in turn produces heat when the hot water is cycled through the plant. The temperature of the water is too high that a small quantity of water has to be taken away as its temperature is unbearable for the internal working of the plant.

Likewise every move to have a green earth, reduce global warming; one cannot claim this option to be 100% eco-friendly option. But what catches eye and mind is the fact that the greenhouse emissions through this process are almost 35% of the normal. This simply means doing away with the 500 tons of carbon dioxide from the air along with saving about 800K gallons of water a year. Isn’t it a great move?

Against present 50% efficiency of the fuel cell, it can be 85% competent, if additional heat is captured from the process. This praiseworthy and efficient move of Fujitsu is aided by utility credits as the company has got a rebate of $500,000 ($2.50 rebate per watt) from Pacific Gas & Electricity. No doubt about the success of the Fujitsu’s initiative but yes success can go two-fold if the waste is minimized and cell works with its full efficiency.

Drawback: The installation of this system is accessible to the industry that works in a 24X7 environment. It is this feature only that Fujitsu doesn’t fall in a category to make the efficient use of its own invention.

Via NYTimes