[geeks] [rescue] Computerfests (was: first real server hardware) -OT

[Dan Duncan]

On Wed, 28 Apr 2004 wa2egp at att.net wrote:
> Actually the distillation process does require the most energy.  In
> the right place, you don't have to pump the water and plowing can be
> minimal since you don't want to increase erosion.  Although I
> don't know why they can't use solar to distill.

You could, but solar is tough to manage in real time.  You'd need some
sort of intermediate storage.  Hydrogen fuel cell maybe?  You could
use an array of mirrored parabolic dishes to focus sunlight onto
a boiler or something... but again it would only work when the sun is
shining and if it clouded up your boiler would cool off and you'd
have to heat it up all over again.

> There is some upcoming technology that could (I hope) boost solar cells to
> almost 60% efficiency.

Great!  Solar panels have always had a horrendous efficiency.  Their
saving grace is that you can capture a small percentage of what was
already a free energy source.

> There has been some work done on chemicals that
> can break up water by just using light thus avoiding the electricity part.
> The only problem is said to be storage but there are some foamed metal
> tanks that can store hydrogen at low pressure in reasonable amounts.

You can always compress it later, I guess, but it does take energy.
Hopefully the compressor would be hydrogen powered.

> True.  Too bad we can't get something to go hydrogen to electricity
> and the vehicle will be "minimal" emissions.

Simple.  Fuel cell.  That's basically what it does.  You separate
hydrogen and oxygen with a special membrane and they combine
with virtually no heat.  The result is very efficient electricity.
NASA has been using it since the 60's.

> At present, electric
> vehicles would make the pollution from a diffuse source to a point
> source which might be better since it could be handled more efficiently
> at the plant than on a tail pipe.

True, but thinking about it as zero emissions sets a bad precedent.
Out of sight should NOT be out of mind.

> > As an interim step.  The beauty of using a SERIES hybrid design
> > instead of the parallel design offered by Honda and Toyota
> > (although Prius is a step towards series from parallel) is that
> > the engine/generator is merely a source of electricity.  Since it's
> > not directly coupled to the drivetrain it's just a module.  You can
> > easily replace it without any significant change to your design.  Want
> > to switch your design from gas to diesel?  Pop in a different
> > engine/generator.  Fuel cells become commercially viable?  Pop in a fuel
> > cell.  How about a higher performance model to carry heavy loads or go
> > faster?  Bigger engine.  How about a multi-fuel turbine to burn whatever
> > is on sale this week?  How about Mr. Fusion?  Hamsters?  Plutonium?
>
> That would never fly.  Can't make enough money.  Need to s-can the whole
> vehicle and buy a new one ;->

That's why I said they could switch the DESIGN.  It would cost them
virtually nothing to make the change on the production line but they
would still sell the car with a pricetag that looked like it contained
normal R&D costs.

Oh.  My.  God.

http://www.auto123.com/en/info/news/news,view.spy?artid=21889

I want one.  Now.

> I'm surprised external combustion engines were not more intensely
> investigated.  Burn clean with plenty of oxygen, no pressure so
> minimal nitrogen-oxygen compounds.  Darn efficiency no better than
> internal but more potential to reduce pollution.

Parhaps a lot of it is inertia.  I dunno.

-DanD

-- 
#  Dan Duncan (kd4igw)  dand at pcisys.net  http://pcisys.net/~dand
# The  important thing is not to stop questioning.  Curiosity has its own
# reason for existing.  -Albert Einstein