EvMick@aol.com wrote:
> Earlier this year I made reference to a website which purported to be able to
> produce power from a presently unknown "law" of physics. Hydrino's I beleive
> it was called.....BlackLight power company.
>
> I beleive Spike set the record straight by saying mentioning that for power
> to be derived there must be a differential. That is....there must be a heat
> source and a heat sink.
>
> I've been thinking about that. (lotsa time to think driving down the
> highway...particularly if youre allergic to commercial radio).
>
> All power sources that I'm familar with go from hot to cold. By that I mean
> that the power source(gasoline, diesel, electric, charcoal, firewood,
> whatever) is concentrated. Using this concentrated heat source and some
> type of mechanism a tempetrure differential is produced with the ambient.
>
> My truck has a radiator, electric company generators have cooling towers,
> etc. etc. There must be a tempeture differential for power to be produced.
>
> How about if we go about it backwards?
>
> How much "Coldth" can be concentrated in a mobile source? Is a solid
> nitrogen brick possible?
Sure, any element can be solidified.
> Assume it is (or something like it).....could usable amounts of electricity
> be developed using "thermocouple technology"? Or merely by letting the
> nitrogen boil off and powering "steam" engines?
The most efficient thermocouples, as I recall, are in the order of 8-10%
efficient, and were developed for use on those space probe nuclear batteries or
on the SP-100 nuclear reactor as a secondary generation system. The technology
was being bandied around by the NASA technology transfer program a couple years
ago.
Photovoiltaics are similar to thermocouples, though they are a semi-conductor
based device, so they are still different. As you may recall, I posted a couple
years ago about a hybrid car test vehicle that Washington State University profs
and students built that uses a natural gas furnace surrounded by high efficiency
photovoltaics (GAs/GAnt sandwiches, about 34.5% efficient) to generate
electricity for the car's motors.
Letting the nitrogen boil off might be a good idea, as 'steam' type sterling
engines are much cleaner and quieter than normal engines. Using the nitrogen as a
cold battery on one end, and, say, a solar powered induction coil on the other
end, the sterling engine would work ok, however, what you gain in lack of moving
parts and complexity, you lose in efficiency.
> In this instance the ambient temp. of the atmosphere would heat the nitrogen
> brick causing (hopefully) a useful pressure differential. The only exhaust
> would be nitrogen....chilly nitrogen...no nitrogen dioxides even...
>
You would still need a power plant that distilled nitrogen and bottled it up.
That takes power, and the distilling and bottling process drains more from the
efficiency conversion.
My own preference for a perfect car is a twist on the hybrid vehicles we are now
seeing. The drawback with hybrid vehicles is that the one skimpy engine puts a
limit on you, it can only operate in a certain range, a battery is not very
efficient at converting stored energy, and the inverter also draws off several
percent as well. My solution is to utilize micro-turbine technology. Some of you
have seen the MIMS projects the US Army is working on, with a 10 watt pocket
turbine generator to power infantry field equipment. For a hyrbid vehicle, use
little or no battery at all, instead have a bank of 20, 1.5 kW micro turbines
generating electricity for the drive motors. As demand changes, start and stop
individual turbines in the bank. Thus the user can vary ouput from 1.5 up to 30
kW. A larger vehicle would use more turbines in the bank, and since they would be
modular units, users could add and subtract turbines to match the individual's
taste/budget, and failed turbines could easily be removed and replaced, sending
the bad unit off to a refurb depot. If one fails on the road, you aren't dead in
the water, either, so there would be less need for tow trucks, fewer ruined
vacations, etc.
-- TANSTAAFL!!!Michael S. Lorrey Member, Extropy Institute http://www.extropy.org Member, National Rifle Association http://www.nra.org "Live Free or Die, Death is not the Worst of Evils." - General John Stark
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