Fuel cell + absorption chiller. 85% efficiency.

Traditional power generation throws away two-thirds of its fuel.

A typical combustion generator converts only ~35% of its fuel energy into electricity. The remaining ~65% leaves the engine as waste heat — radiator coolant, exhaust gases, jacket water — and is vented to atmosphere. For sites that also need cooling, that fuel gets burned a second time at the utility scale to drive electric chillers, compounding the inefficiency.

For our data-center and hospital customers, this means a 1 MW IT load typically requires ~1.4 MW of generation capacity plus ~300 kW of electric chiller load — burning nearly 3× the fuel needed for the actual useful work.

Recover the heat. Drive cooling with it. Don't burn fuel twice.

We pair a solid-oxide fuel cell (SOFC) with a lithium-bromide absorption chiller. The fuel cell electrochemically converts natural gas or hydrogen into electricity at ~60% efficiency — already much higher than combustion. Its 500°C exhaust stream then feeds a single-effect absorption chiller, which uses thermal energy (not electricity) to drive a refrigeration cycle.

• SOFC delivers clean, low-NOₓ electricity at ~60% LHV efficiency
• High-temperature exhaust (~500°C) routed through a recovery heat exchanger
• Single-effect LiBr/H₂O absorption chiller produces 7°C chilled water
• No mechanical compressor — chiller runs silently with minimal moving parts
• Combined system efficiency reaches 80–87% (HHV basis) under design load

Side-by-side: conventional vs SPM trigeneration.

Based on a 500 kW electrical / 300 ton cooling load — typical of a small data hall or hospital wing.

500 kW trigeneration plant, regional data center, Texas — 2024.

We installed our first commercial trigeneration package at a Tier III edge data center near San Antonio. The site previously ran on grid power with three 150-ton air-cooled chillers — combined PUE of 1.62 and a recurring concern about grid stability during summer load peaks.

The SPM system replaced both power and cooling with one integrated package: a Bloom Energy ES5-300kW SOFC array (scaled to 600 kW), a Yazaki WFC-SC50 absorption chiller (175 tons primary + 125 tons backup electric), and our proprietary heat-recovery and controls package.

• Commissioning: 14 weeks, including civil work and gas service upgrade
• PUE post-install: 1.18 (vs 1.62 baseline)
• Grid imports: reduced 92%; site is islandable for 96+ hours on stored fuel
• Measured combined efficiency: 83.4% (vs 85% design target)
• Payback: 3.2 years against avoided grid + chiller capex/opex

Scaling to 5 MW packages and hydrogen-ready stacks.

The pilot validated the thermodynamics and the controls package. Our engineering team is now productizing two standard configurations: a containerized 1 MW / 600-ton unit for edge and healthcare sites, and a 5 MW / 3,000-ton skidded plant for hyperscale customers.

Both will ship with hydrogen-capable SOFC stacks — letting customers transition to zero-carbon operation as green hydrogen pricing falls, without replacing the heat-recovery side of the system.

• Q3 2026: 1 MW containerized package — production release
• Q1 2027: 5 MW skidded plant — engineering samples
• Q3 2027: H₂-blend testing at pilot site (up to 40% by volume)
• 2028: Full hydrogen capability on production units