Electricity-in-a-box, the future of eco-friendly energy?

[pausert20]

Pump a liquid metal through a magnetic field and you will induce a current. I believe the Russians were the first to try this. It is called MHD. Link to it in Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MHD_generator

You could use this for your space Rx.

[TheGoat Eater]

- The CBS 60 minutes spot -

[lkiller123]

Well, to anyone that doubts about the reliability, I don't think that will be a major concern.

Google, Walmart, eBay, and even the CIA are all using this new technology. They seem to be happy with it so far.

But now the major obstacle is lowering the price, from 700k all the way down to 3k won't be possible anytime soon.

Bloom Energy is developing Power Purchase Agreements to sell the electricity produced by the boxes, rather than sell the boxes themselves, in order to address customers' fears about box maintenance, reliability and servicing costs.

- Wikipedia

That might work.

[cegras]

I don't know. Either way, you're still consuming hydrocarbons.

[dieqast]

Aerostat wind/solar power farms and fusion power plants are the future power sources, fossil fuel power generation should become a thing of the past (finally)!

But for the industry this might be good to reduce emissions for the short term, might become the iPod for big companies to show off their 'greenness'. In the end, it's a good development to reduce independence and reduce harmful emissions with a cost-effective product. But again, it's not the future.

[cegras]

I don't see anything special about this. The whole stunt about unveiling a little bit of sand to say - this is how we make the silicon! Was somewhat ... yeah.

Old technology, but this man is certainly a good salesman.

[lkiller123]

I don't see anything special about this. The whole stunt about unveiling a little bit of sand to say - this is how we make the silicon! Was somewhat ... yeah.

Old technology, but this man is certainly a good salesman.

No, if price can be lowered, we can actually have "clean, efficient" energy.

A box that's about a size of a Lian Li V351 case can power the whole house.

[oohms]

Fuel cells are old... i'm willing to bet my left nut that this thing won't take off

[JumpingJack]

Fuel cells are old... i'm willing to bet my left nut that this thing won't take off

I will be back to call you on this bet when the time comes....

[Sam_oslo]

This is going to use fossil fuel. Maybe they can make a bit cleaner than other too-polluting scenarios, but we need renewable energy.
But look at the PR-team, these guys means business.

[dieqast]

This could be a new beginning for FCHEV's though. For a range extender this is a very very small and power efficient option and you can use liquid fossil fuels which has the infrastructure compared to hydrogen.

[ryboto]

This could be a new beginning for FCHEV's though. For a range extender this is a very very small and power efficient option and you can use liquid fossil fuels which has the infrastructure compared to hydrogen.

No, this wont be used in vehicles. Did you see how many stacks make up a system? Besides, its an SOFC design, they operate at extreme temperatures, 500-1000C, not something you'd be putting in your car.

[XS Janus]

So a company with a concept of talking regular people massively of the grid?
LOL! I'm looking forward to seeing how far they will come with their plan until someone stomps them...

[XS2K]

I dunno,car makers have been toying with the fuel cell ideea for some time now but electric engines are now I think the way to go for the car industry since most of them have invested and have vehicles in the prototype or consumer version equipped with this technology.
Well,energy companies can buy these fuel cells and provide power for the grid through them for communities,maybe even improve efficiency,I dunno if this is the way but it's sure a good step to the right way.

[ryboto]

I dunno,car makers have been toying with the fuel cell ideea for some time now but electric engines are now I think the way to go for the car industry since most of them have invested and have vehicles in the prototype or consumer version equipped with this technology.
Well,energy companies can buy these fuel cells and provide power for the grid through them for communities,maybe even improve efficiency,I dunno if this is the way but it's sure a good step to the right way.

The type of FC being made here is a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. They operate at very high temperature (500-1000C), and as such can use hydrocarbons and non-platinum catalysts to operate. They are NOT for vehicle use. In cars we'll be using Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells(PEMFC), which operate under 100C, and can run on H2 or methanol(which can be a Carbon neutral biofuel) rather effectively.

[dieqast]

The type of FC being made here is a Solid Oxide Fuel Cell. They operate at very high temperature (500-1000C), and as such can use hydrocarbons and non-platinum catalysts to operate. They are NOT for vehicle use. In cars we'll be using Polymer Electrolyte Membrane fuel cells(PEMFC), which operate under 100C, and can run on H2 or methanol(which can be a Carbon neutral biofuel) rather effectively.

500-1000C and decreasing, that is (thanks Wikipedia).DMFC's 40% 'effectively', far from SOFC efficiency ratings. A stack the guy can hold in his hand can power a household, why couldn't that trickle charge a car? I agree with you PEMFC might be a better option if the fuel infrastructure would be available. A fuel cell that could run on a fuel that already has an infrastructure (like petrol, diesel) is more interesting though, despite certain drawbacks.

BTW, FC vehicles have electric motors, it's a common mistake. The difference is batteries or a fuel cell + fuel for energy storage.

[ryboto]

500-1000C and decreasing, that is (thanks Wikipedia).DMFC's 40% 'effectively', far from SOFC efficiency ratings. A stack the guy can hold in his hand can power a household, why couldn't that trickle charge a car? I agree with you PEMFC might be a better option if the fuel infrastructure would be available. A fuel cell that could run on a fuel that already has an infrastructure (like petrol, diesel) is more interesting though, despite certain drawbacks.

BTW, FC vehicles have electric motors, it's a common mistake. The difference is batteries or a fuel cell + fuel for energy storage.

The only way they decrease the operating temp is to increase catalytic effectiveness, and that takes time and money. A DMFC is quite efficient for what it is, and before methanol was ousted for ethanol, it would have made a lot of sense. That stack he's holding is part of a group of stacks. A single stack like that couldn't power a home. Why would you want to trickle charge an electric car with a hydrocarbon??

As for using the current infrastructure, you could reform the fuels, but then you'd probably negate all the efficiency rewards in the process.

[Otis11]

Interesting technology, but until they figure out how to manufacture this technology using something far cheaper than palladium, it's just not going to catch on.

Every day we're finding out more and more about how "global warming" alarmists have lied, manufactured scientific data, and destroyed critical data. In the past few weeks alone, the top UN climate scientist quit conveniently after Phil Jones, the University of East Anglia scientist who played a key role in the "Climate-Gate" e-mail scandal went on the record with the BBC and told the world that we've been cooling for 15 years AND temperatures were hotter during the mid-evil warm period. Probably substantially warmer.

Oh yeah, and it turns out that Obama's top climate change guy suppressed data while at NOAA and a few other agencies. He's the guy who shared the Nobel Prize with Al Gore. Seeing a connection here?

And to top off this last weeks events, it turns out the climatologists who added the "scientific study" on melting polar ice to the UN's fourth assessment report were found to be "fabricating data" and subsequently retracted their entire study from the report.


The vast majority of catalytic converters use platinum as the main catalyst component (about 5 grams on average) as well as about a gram of Rhodium.



Sounds like you just read the same wiki page as me.

Dude, links please! I know some of that data, but always have a hard time locating proof...

Even though I don't believe in global warming () I'm all for alternate sources of fuel. With the world industrializing and more people getting access to electricity and cars, it becomes even more important to find alternate ways to produce electricity.

While I don't think this is a solution by any means, it's a good step. If it's more efficient at producing/distributing electricity than our current methods AND it cuts harmful emissions, I support it.

And just my about our energy future: Fossil fuels are currently a necessity. We're not going to get off them in the foreseeable future. It would be completely uneconomical to tear down existing infrastructure, and despite what anyone believes about global warming, it won't happen all over the world. The only way we'll get off them is to replace outdated and decommissioned plants with newer facilities (probably mostly nuclear if we can ever get people over their irrational fears) and satisfy growing demand with renewable/nuclear sources. Eventually we will find a way to use renewable for the majority of our needs, but I'd be surprised (happily) if that was in my lifetime, and I'm only 19. We've got a long way to go to be sustainable without Fossil fuels, and even longer till we're completely renewable, but if we start taking the steps now, we'll get there.

// end rant

[Meizuman]

This goes offtopic, and I don't really know anything about what I'm talking, but just came to my mind that those laser thingies that Buckey talked about... Couldn't they be used with railguns? I recall watching a document of the modern weapons and they had a railgun with huge capacitor pack that took lot of time to get charged. But capacitors can take big amounts of electricity in a very short time, so could they charge those capacitors in a split second with that laser technology...? Or, would they even need the capacitors, just hook that (I dont know what to call it -laser) directly to railgun and the round per sec for the weapon goes way up? (I don't have a clue how long it takes the laser to operate...)

[[XC] gomeler]

This goes offtopic, and I don't really know anything about what I'm talking, but just came to my mind that those laser thingies that Buckey talked about... Couldn't they be used with railguns? I recall watching a document of the modern weapons and they had a railgun with huge capacitor pack that took lot of time to get charged. But capacitors can take big amounts of electricity in a very short time, so could they charge those capacitors in a split second with that laser technology...? Or, would they even need the capacitors, just hook that (I dont know what to call it -laser) directly to railgun and the round per sec for the weapon goes way up? (I don't have a clue how long it takes the laser to operate...)

Lasers are energized by capacitor banks just like rail guns. Capacitors = high current, potentially high voltage, short duration.

[Entity_Razer]

sorry if I'm going to sound pretentious and whatnot,...

but ... if only the video editing and atmosphere in US Programs (like 60 minutes) didn't feel so dam "Fake" and unnatural I could actually believe it...

but with the host being so obviously "fake" and unsympathetic the entire story just completely goes to shambles and all I can think while watching that is :

"what a cow...."

[lutjens]

This is a very interesting technology, but a lot of questions remain. Fuel consumption quantity is still unknown, but a relatively small cost savings have been noted, definitely insufficient savings to justify the price of such a device. Emissions quantities are another unknown, as is long term reliability and future maintenance costs. Such a device, if made portable and much cheaper, could definitely find value in portable electricity generation and backup power supply and has the potential to be a main power source to a home if it's proven reliable enough and fuel availability in the region is adequate and inexpensive.

A promising technology, but it still has a long way to go to become mainstream.