Environmental benefits

Electricity and the environment are on the agenda.

Worldwide, electricity generation is one of the major sources of carbon emissions. 
How can BlueGen® help reduce this?

Producing electricity more efficiently

BlueGen helps the environment by displacing electricity that would otherwise be generated from carbon intensive, inefficient sources.  BlueGen converts widely available natural gas into low-emission electricity using fuel cells.  Ceramic fuel cells are extremely efficient and use much less fuel to generate electricity. In the future, BlueGen can also operate on renewable fuels such as biogas and hydrogen, so not only is BlueGen part of the low-carbon future, it also has a place in the zero-carbon economy.

Producing electricity where it's needed

Today, most electricity is generated centrally, often at a location far from where it's consumed.   It then needs to be transported long distances though inefficient transmission and distribution networks.  With BlueGen, power is generated where it's consumed, avoiding transmission and distribution losses.

Minimising waste

With centralised electricity production, most of the energy input is lost in vented thermal energy. Co-generation or combined heat and power (CHP) improve energy efficiency by capturing thermal energy that would normally be wasted.  BlueGen incorporates a heat recovery system that can capture most of the heat from the ceramic fuel cell into a hot water tank.  This means over 85 per cent of the input energy is used i.e. 60 per cent electrical energy and 25 per cent thermal energy.

By recovering the heat from BlueGen, we don't need to burn gas or use carbon intensive electricity to heat water, thereby saving even more carbon dioxide and other greenhouse emissions.

More information?

To find out more about the environmental benefits of BlueGen, learn about BlueGen technology, read our case study on BlueGen and the environment or, calculate possible carbon dioxide savings.