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Harvard Grid Computing Project Discovers 20k Organic Photovoltaic Molecules
Lucas123 writes "In June, Harvard's Clean Energy Project plans to release to solar power developers a list of the top 20,000 organic compounds, any one of which could be used to make cheap, printable photovoltaic cells (PVCs). The CEP uses the computing resources of IBM's World Community Grid for the computational chemistry to find the best molecules for organic photovoltaics culled the list from about 7 million. About 6,000 computers are part of the project at any one time. If successful, the crowdsourcing-style project, which has been crunching data for the past two-plus years, could lead to PVCs that cost about as much as paint to cover a one-meter square wall."
The big thing here is that they've discovered a lot of organic molecules that have the potential for 10% or better conversion; roughly equivalent to the current best PV material, and twice as efficient as other available organic PV materials.
Indeed. They're probably including labor costs, but still. One gallon of paint covers ~32m^2, * 2-6kWh/m^2/day insolation for a vertical equator-facing surface outside the tropics (relatively constant throughout the year, neglecting cloud cover and other shade sources) * 10% = 6-20kWh/day year round for a one-gallon paint job. Wouldn't have to last long at all to pay for itself.
--- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
Seeing as the current refrigerant we use will have equally BAD results if tested in this manner, I wouldn't go nailing anyone to any crosses just yet.
Don't believe me? Run out, buy a can of air duster, make sure you are in a room without much air circulation, turn the can upside down and light the resulting liquid spray on fire. Breath in REAL deep.*
They both make into Hydrogen Fluoride when burned, just add water for your dreaded hydrofluoric acid. Hey, wait a minute, aren't your lung tissues made up of lots of water?
To further make a point: The Dymler engineers mixed the HFO1234yf with compressor oil to increase its burning potential, then sprayed it over a large area on a hot engine block. In our experiment up top we ignited pure R-152a with nothing but a Bic lighter. Food for thought.
*Don't do this.
Now, I'm not particularly good with metric, nor am I particularly experienced with engine repair (having done nothing more complex than replacing a water pump), but I would think 500C is a bit unusual for an engine to operate at. That's roughly 900F, well above the melting point of, say, lead, and getting close to that of aluminum or magnesium.
According to some brief googling, the typical operating temperature for an engine is under 250F (120C), and gasoline auto-ignites at 280C (540F). So by the time your engine block has reached 500C, you should already have run a good ways away.
Not to mention that, just by the name, tetraflouropropene sounds like a hard chemical to aerosolize, which is also a condition needed for it to release HF.
So to recap:
You first need to get your engine block to a temperature far beyond what it's designed to handle. Then you need to be in a crash violent enough to aerosolize a decent-sized organic compound, *and* that aerosol has to land on that engine. Finally, all the above has to happen in sufficient quantities to produce a dangerous amount of HF gas, which I will note is not quite as holyfuckballswereallgonnadie lethal as you seem to think (it is very dangerous, and rightly feared, but you aren't going to die from a milliliter of it).
Yeah, I'm fine with that. Can't be much more dangerous than gasoline, which can kill you under far less unusual circumstances.
Actually, depending on how you define best (do laboratory samples count?) I think they're past 40% now
If you read closely on how they achieve the more than 40% efficiency you would see that they are not "1 sun" PV structure
Case in point, Solar Junction ( http://www.sj-solar.com/ ) came out with the "lattice matched 942X" which has 44% conversion rate
That "942X" denotes "942 suns", which means, the PV from Solar Junction is not flat panel type of PV, but rather, achieve its high efficiency with the use of focusing optics
Allow me to quote from http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/rea/news/article/2012/10/solar-junction-does-it-again-sets-new-cpv-efficiency-record
" ... Think of a magnifying glass. Basically, you have a very high performance solar cell that sits at the focal point of these focusing optics. The solar cell converts the photon flux into electrons, and power
Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !