Here is a report of a solid-state technology that converts heat to electricity with 20% efficiency: http://newenergyandfuel.com/http:/newenergyandfuel/com/2012/09/20/heat-to-electricity-breakthrough-may-be-commercial-scale/
Sure looks useful to me.
Tags: electricity, lenr, production
October 20, 2012 at 2:56 pm |
Bruce – looks like you’re looking for ways to get the LENR into electricity more efficiently. This one is pretty good now, and looks to be improved upon. The main problem with TEGs is that the electrons carry heat as well as electricity, so it’s a hard nut to crack.
I’d suspect this could also be used as a heat-pump, which would give you quieter heating in your house. Maybe not yet as efficient as a gas cycle, but they look to be getting there.
October 20, 2012 at 3:54 pm |
Great for powering air-conditioners in hell.
October 21, 2012 at 1:48 am |
Actually it won’t work for powering air conditioners because you need a temperature gradient for it to work, it creates energy when heat moves from hot to cold, just like any heat engine such as steam or internal combustion.
The air conditioner creates a temperature gradient by moving heat from cold to hot, generally with about 90% efficiency.
Even if both were operating at 100% efficiency, the heat pump would use more every than the heat engine would recover.
Rossi actually tried something similar before he got involved in LNER, but only managed 2% efficiency.
This technology would probably initially be used in satellites in place of the sorts of thermocouples Rossi was experimenting with. Otherwise, steam engines are about 40% efficient, so we are likely to continue using them for some time. Both technologies will require a supply of cold water or similar to keep them working.
October 21, 2012 at 3:56 pm
Jonathan – it should be OK to use it as a heat-pump, though as with a standard Peltier block it’s not going to be as efficient as the gas-filled refrigeration. Just quieter.
Funnily enough, the government reports on Rossi’s first TEG samples showed around 20% efficiency if I recall it correctly, but the factory he built them in burnt down and he only achieved 2% efficiency with the samples from the new factory so lost the contract. It’s inconvenient when the factory burns down. It’s even possible that the reported facts are true.
February 6, 2013 at 2:26 pm |
Sea urchins use NickelPower.
http://www.ncl.ac.uk/press.office/press.release/item/could-the-humble-sea-urchin-hold-the-key-to-carbon-capture#.URLXvKWAAmx
February 6, 2013 at 2:49 pm |
Nice thing to have if you really want to get rid of the CO2. I wonder where the calcium comes from, though. If it gets put into mass use and the CO2 goes down, we’ll reduce the amount of food we can grow through lack of CO2. We’re currently in a pause of global warming, but the climatologists (having said 15 years was needed before the change in weather can be taken as climate change) have now said it’ll be another 5 years before they’ll accept they are wrong. Plan to get some form of LENR heating for 10years from now.