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Hydrogen Micro Turbine Only 4mm In Diameter

Posted by chrisd on from the small-is-way-cool dept.

savaget writes: "Luc G. Frchette of the Columbia University Microsystem Engineering Laboratory has developed a 20W electrical generator powered by a hydrogen turbine just 4mm in diameter. For more details, read the Wired article or an older Popular Science article. The tiny generator is more efficient than any battery and is expected to find military and commercial uses including robotics." Imagine the uses ...

8 of 353 comments (clear)

  1. 2.4 million RPM by blair1q · · Score: 5, Funny


    That's 40 KHz.

    Your dog is going to go totally nuts every time you turn on your PDA.

    --Blair

  2. heat by tdrury · · Score: 5, Funny

    Apparently it generates a lot more heat than a conventional battery. Too hot for a cell phone. New slogan:

    "Reach out and torch someone."

    -tim

  3. Why? by cperciva · · Score: 4, Offtopic

    Why would anyone *want* a tiny hydrogen-powered turbine generator? Fuel cells are already more efficient than they are even hoping this will become; fuel cells also likely to live much longer since they don't have any moving parts.

    I'll agree that it's cool to take things that we are used to at macroscopic scales and make them tiny, but it usually isn't going to be an efficient way of doing anything.

    --
    Tarsnap: Online backups for the truly paranoid
  4. Re:How'd you figure that out? by leucadiadude · · Score: 5, Informative

    Umm, Hertz equals cycles(or rotations) per second.

    (2.4E+06RPM (Rotations / Minute) / (60 Seconds / Minute) == 40000 Hertz

    Or 40KHz

  5. Re:Compressed hydrogen... by leucadiadude · · Score: 5, Informative

    H2 in gaseous form is NOT explosive unless it's in a mixture with O2 where it is about 4% to 85% of the mixture. Pure H2 is perfectly safe. And even if the H2 tank ruptures there is not going to be enough H2 to do anything. It might burn for a second or two and thats about it, most likely not enough H2 mass there to really do any damage (beyond the device it's in). Certainly not enough to cause an explosive misture in a large enough volume of air to matter.

    And since this tank is gonna be small, it can be made really freakin tough. Think about how tough a good quality propane cigarette lighter tank is.

  6. For you engineering types by DaoudaW · · Score: 4, Informative

    Most micromotors demonstrated to date have simply succeeded to overcome the viscous drag on the rotor, leaving no power to drive other com-ponents and limiting their use for low-load actuation.

    Luc Frechette just published ASSESSMENT OF VISCOUS FLOWS IN HIGH-SPEED MICRO ROTATING MACHINERY FOR ENERGY CONVERSION APPLICATIONS in which he lays out the constraints of micro-motors and how he hopes to overcome them.

  7. Yeah, but . . . by hawk · · Score: 4, Funny
    Yeah, but think of how fast your laptop will move under it's own power . . .


    That, and now the "Turbo" switch on the front ofthe old machines will be literally accurate--instead of slowing down the machine for old games, it will kick in the generator and boost cpu voltage . . .


    hawk

  8. Multiply by the number of blades by mangu · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Being perfect to the last atom or so, there should be no vibration at the fundamental frequency. I counted 20 blades in the Popular Science picture, so the actual noise peak should be at 800kHz. Easily damped, and out of pet hearing frequency range.