Bloom Energy Japan (President: Shigeki Miwa, headquartered in Tokyo) of the Softbank Group, it’s a 50:50 JV company between Softbank Group and Bloom Energy, doing the power generation business delivered and installed its LNG-fueled power generation cell “Bloom Energy Server” for industrial use to Kumagaya Plant No. 2 located at Kumagaya, Saitama of Porite Corporation (President: Kikuchi, headquartered in Saitama City) which is a manufacturer of powder metallurgical product.

The system was put into operation on January 24, and a commemorating ceremony was held inviting the people on February 10. LNG is supplied by Iwatani and the construction of LNG satellite station inside the plant was contracted also by Iwatani. The “Bloom Energy Server” usable for city gas, bio-gas and natural gas is a solid oxide fuel cell (SOFC) which is characteristic with its clean and high efficiency properties having an initial generation effect exceeding 60%.

It is said that in the United States the introduction of distributed power system is on the way as a base power source for data centers, plants, large-sized commercial facilities and governmental facilities where a sustainable power supply is required. In Japan, on the other hand, the system has been in operation since 2013 at M-Tower of Fukuoka City, Tokyo Shiodome Building and Shonan Fujisawa Campus of Keio University in an output scale each of 200kW as well as Osaka Central Wholesale Market with output of 1200kW.

The unit installed this time in Kumagaya Plant No. 2 of Porite Corporation has a floor area of about 66m2 including the maintenance space with an output capaicty of 250kW, initial generation efficiency over 60% calculated at the lower heating value and a dimension of 10.1m width, 1.3m high, 2.1m thick and weight of 16.3t. The capacity of LNG tank is about 60 thousand liters. The total construction cost amounted to about 460 million yen, and is the first case of subsidized F/C introduction project in Saitama Prefecture. In the speech at the inauguration ceremony President Kikuchi of Porite Corporation said, “The output of 250kW is on the world-first level as the single unit of fuel cell, and the use of LNG has been employed for the first time in the world. With this success, it can be used now in the area where there is no distribution pipeline of city gas.”

Bill Kurtz, CFO & COO of Bloom Energy Japan said, “We adopted the cutting-edge equipment, which has been used by a manufacturing field for the first time in the world. Our success is attributed to the use of Porite’s separator which is a component of Bloom Energy Server, and it has turned out to be a very precious milestone.”
(Porite has been supplying separators for the Bloom Energy Server. In the equipment installed this time, 12 thousand separators are actually used.)