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Super Soaker Inventor Hopes to Double Solar Efficiency

Posted by timothy on from the if-they-get-too-hot-we-can-super-soak-them dept.

mattnyc99 writes "With top geeks saying photovoltaic cells are still four years away from costing as much as the grid, and the first U.S. thermal power plant just getting into production, there's plenty of solar hype without any practical solution that's efficient enough. Until Lonnie Johnson came along. The man who invented the Super Soaker water gun turns out to be a nuclear engineer who's developed a solid-state heat engine that converts the sun's heat to electricity at 60-percent efficiency—double the rate of the next most successful solar process. And his innovation, called the Johnson Thermoelectric Energy Conversion (JTEC) system, is getting funding from the National Science Foundation, so this is no toy. From the article: 'If it proves feasible, drastically reducing the cost of solar power would only be a start. JTEC could potentially harvest waste heat from internal combustion engines and combustion turbines, perhaps even the human body. And no moving parts means no friction and fewer mechanical failures.'"

6 of 288 comments (clear)

  1. Not sure about this... by ZonkerWilliam · · Score: 3, Interesting
    As an excerpt from his web page states;

    "On the high-pressure side of the MEA, hydrogen gas is oxidized resulting in the creation of protons and electrons" Shouldn't that be ionized?
    1. Re:Not sure about this... by secPM_MS · · Score: 3, Interesting

      My snake oil sensors are going off. To be blunt, I don't believe. Theoretical Carnot cycle limits on efficiency due to temperature differences (such as human body to air) are very low. This is what limited the ocean thermal energy systems, as the efficiencies were low and the amounts of matter you had to move past your heat exchanger were very large. The 60% number came from a high concentrator temperature. The reason we don't get such efficiencies with our power plants is material imitations, similar limitations will limit other approaches as well. We are going to have sizable energy losses going through the membranes and be very susceptible to cracking, pitting, and holes. Note that high temperature hydrogen is a rather chemically active environment. Current thermoelectric elements are not yet efficient enough to compete with closed cycle refrigeration systems. Why should I believe that he has a system that can get ~ 50% more efficiency than we can in highly optimized power plants? Note, reasonable increases in efficiency will be very valuable and are worth funding, but the spinmeister publicity is counter productive. Incidentally, I did my Ph.D in solid state thermodynamics some 25 years ago.

  2. How about the waste heat from my CPU/GPU? by Dr.+Spork · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I want to know more about the principle on which these work, but if they work and can me made inexpensively, they will be found absolutely everywhere where there is waste heat. Couldn't the go under photovoltaic cells - since they convert heat and not light, they could just use the temperature differential between the hot black cells and the surroundings?

  3. Energy consumption is social justice by cryfreedomlove · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Because I am a liberal who is concerned about social justice, I get excited by technologies that could be used to increase energy consumption by folks who are lower on the socio-economic ladder. Increased use of energy consumption for things like refrigeration, home heating, and personal car transportation is something I don't think should be reserved for the upper classes. Inventions that lower the cost of personal energy consumption are worthy of attention and disproportionate investment from fair minded progressives.

  4. You cycle it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As I read it, the hydrogen is cycled between the hot and cold sides of the cell. You don't need any more than the initial charge, just like the refrigerant in an air conditioner.

    What actually happens is the hydrogen is ionized, meaning the protons which make up the nucleus of hydrogen are separated from the electrons. The protons pass through a proton-permeable membrane and flow to the cold side through a tube. The electrons are collected by anodes and forced to travel through an electrical load to the other side in order to recombine with the protons.

    I'm honestly not sure of the specific details beyond that. I suspect hydrogen is used because it consists of only a proton and an electron. No pesky neutrons getting in the way and sapping energy with their mass without contributing a charge. I have no idea how they deal with hydrogen embrittlement or anything like that, because I suspect it would be a worse problem dealing with ionized hydrogen, but it may be a surmountable one.

    Based on how little information there is on the webpage, I'm guessing this project isn't very far along. At face value it sounds technically feasible, but I'll wait until they start reporting actual performance data to get excited about it.

  5. Peer review at NSF - Too all with BS alarms by Danathar · · Score: 4, Interesting

    If he is getting NSF funding then his stuff has survived an NSF peer review panel or more. I work at NSF and I can tell you that scientists that sit on NSF panels (BTW they don't work for NSF but are asked to come) don't have a habit of rubber stamping stuff they think is BS. The Ego's involved don't allow it. If it is truly worth funding then some serious people have looked at his proposal and the science behind it.