Baker Hughes, Bloom Energy unite on hydrogen for energy transition

U.S. energy technology company Baker Hughes and distributed energy company Bloom Energy have agreed to collaborate on hydrogen solutions to advance the energy transition.

The companies will begin to work together on potential customer engagements immediately.

The objective is to launch pilot projects over the next two to three years and fully commercialise and scale applications, products, and solutions shortly thereafter.

The companies will focus on three areas:

1. Integrated power solutions

By leveraging Bloom Energy’s solid oxide fuel cell technology (SOFC) and Baker Hughes’ light-weight gas turbine technology, the companies intend to provide efficient and cost-effective solutions for cleaner energy generation, waste heat recovery, and grid-independent power for customers.

2. Integrated hydrogen solutions

The companies will pair Bloom Energy’s solid oxide electrolyzer cells (SOEC) that can produce 100 per cent clean hydrogen with Baker Hughes’ compression technology for efficient production, compression, transport, and delivery of hydrogen.

They will also assess waste heat utilisation for steam generation to further increase efficiency and cost-effectiveness of hydrogen production.

The companies will focus on applications such as blending hydrogen into natural gas pipelines, as well as on-site hydrogen production for industrial use.

Bloom Energy’s SOEC technology coupled with Baker Hughes’ compression technology could facilitate faster adoption of hydrogen in process industries.

3. Mutual technical collaborations

The partners wants to leverage Baker Hughes’ broad technology portfolio and Bloom Energy’s SOFC and SOEC solutions.

In addition to hydrogen and clean power, areas of collaboration may include carbon capture and emissions monitoring technologies, digital solutions, and additive manufacturing capabilities.

Uwem Ukpong, executive vice president of regions, alliances, and enterprise sales at Baker Hughes, said: “The path to net-zero carbon emissions must include partnerships and collaboration. At the core of our collaboration agreement with Bloom Energy is the potential to develop integrated technology offerings for commercialisation and deployment of smarter, cleaner, and more economic energy solutions. It’s a great example of how Baker Hughes is strategically pursuing ways to advance new energy frontiers and invest for growth in the industrial marketplace.”

Azeez Mohammed, executive vice president of international business for Bloom Energy, added: “We believe that in combining our industry-leading technologies and expertise to provide differentiated and customized integrated solutions to customers, we can accelerate the adoption of clean energy technologies. This collaboration will serve as a model of how we need to look for innovative ways in which we can work together and integrate technologies and capabilities to achieve our common goals for global decarbonization and resiliency.”

For hydrogen, Baker Hughes provides compression and energy conversion technology and services that are used across the value chain worldwide, including production, transportation and utilization.

Bloom Energy’s modular and fuel-flexible energy server platform can use biogas and hydrogen, in addition to natural gas, to create electricity at significantly higher efficiencies than traditional resources. Bloom Energy’s fuel cell technology can be used to create hydrogen.