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Buzz Out Loud Lounge: MIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks...
MIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks...
by shawnlin - 8/1/08 7:31 AMMIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks...
http://gizmodo.com/5031810/new-way-of-storing-solar-energy-discovered
excerpt:
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Scientists at MIT have come up with a new fuel cell process that mimics the way plants store the sun's rays that is both efficient and inexpensive, not to mention environmentally sound. Without getting too technical, the system uses sunlight to separate water's hydrogen and oxygen atoms and then puts them back together in a fuel cell, providing energy.
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This would be A-W-E-S-O-M-E!!!!!
Best,
Shalin
AWESOME.
by R. Proffitt
- 8/1/08 7:36 AM
In reply to: MIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks... by shawnlin
Let's see what happens when NatGas (NG) leaks in some home -> http://cms.firehouse.com/web/online/Photo-Stories/Gas-Explosion--Fire-Level-Lexington--Massachusetts-Home/45$45827
Doesn't hydrogen have a similar propensity?
Yes
by Nicholas Buenk - 8/1/08 10:43 PM In reply to: AWESOME. by R. Proffitt
Because gasoline is completely safe and never explodes. 
Yes!
by R. Proffitt - 8/2/08 2:04 PM
In reply to: Yes by Nicholas Buenk
I've heard that we can put out the flames if we dump enough of that liquid into the conflagration.
actually that would work
by mementh - 8/3/08 2:52 PM In reply to: Yes! by R. Proffitt
You would just need to put enough on fast enough to drown out the oxygen and then hope that the heat is not enough to restart once oxygen is reintroduced.
Humor? Notice the Marshmellow Plant in this video?
by R. Proffitt - 8/3/08 3:33 PM
In reply to: actually that would work by mementh
http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=4556582430279254650
When there's a fire, you gotta have em.
what are you saying?
by mementh - 8/3/08 4:27 PM In reply to: Humor? Notice the Marshmellow Plant in this video? by R. Proffitt
Eh? I was trying to be funny.. drowing a fire in gas i know technically would work but practically is silly.. but i don't understand what your trying to say here?
I understand there was a mashmellow factory and it was destroyed but?
There was something humorous about them noting that.
by R. Proffitt - 8/3/08 5:27 PM
In reply to: what are you saying? by mementh
Not all the video commentary I've seen on this noted the marshmellow factory.
Back on topic. The very idea of your average homeowner operating a Hydrogen storage device or just having one on their premises is scary.
risk and average people...
by shawnlin - 8/3/08 8:28 PM In reply to: There was something humorous about them noting that. by R. Proffitt
risk and average people...
Right, but there can be methods to mitigate the risk - training, "fool proof" design (I know, I know - nothing is really foolproof, but...), etc.
I mean, I think it's a bit scary for the average person to drive a car, have fun with a credit card, operate a firearm, etc. Ya know?
Fortunately, the risk can be mitigated...
Best,
Shalin
i remember something simmular
by kid_entropy - 8/1/08 3:16 PM In reply to: MIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks... by shawnlinDoes anybody listen to the CBC's Quirks and Quarks?
I don't remember the specifics but it involved a turning CO2 and water into something like gasoline.
wait, this just in i found a link to the story: http://tinyurl.com/2dqufy
Chemical fuels are really wonderful things, it's hard to get a energy source that's denser.
awesome. I've heard of synthetic gasoline...
by shawnlin - 8/1/08 7:58 PM In reply to: i remember something simmular by kid_entropyawesome. I've heard of synthetic gasoline that was produced a while back during the last giant energy crunch in the 70's - in todays dollars, it would be ~$50-70/barrel. sounds like a good idea, but I guess you'll have to make sure you still can get at all the chemicals...
--S
all the needed chemicals are there in water and air
by kid_entropy - 8/1/08 9:23 PM In reply to: awesome. I've heard of synthetic gasoline... by shawnlinWhat we call gasoline are hydrocarbons that vary between six carbon items and fourteen hydrogen atoms on lighter side and twelve carbon atoms and twenty six hydrogen atoms on the heavier side. A good "average" composition might be C8H18. It's distilled from crude oil so pretty much everything in the crude that boils out between 50 and 200 degrees Celsius is collected and sold as gasoline. You get other stuff like benzine and sulfur compounds that are particularly useful but end up in the mix none the less.
Synthetic gasoline (like synthetic motor oil you might put in your car already)is uniform in its composition. Every molecule would be C8H18 with out the nastier bits. The trick is using solar energy to split the hydrogen from water and the carbon from CO2 in the air and then converting them into a relatively stable and liquid compound like gasoline. This way solar energy can be stored more efficiently and densely than it could be otherwise.
I like to think of gasoline like batteries or a clock spring, it's just convenient medium that allows energy to be stored until needed. A good metaphor might be winding a chemical spring.
Germany made synthetic gasoline...
by Nicholas Buenk - 8/1/08 10:39 PM In reply to: awesome. I've heard of synthetic gasoline... by shawnlinIn ww2 from coal.
The problem is however, the byproduct of the conversion, is a lot of carbon dioxide. :/
So...
by Nicholas Buenk - 8/1/08 10:38 PM In reply to: MIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks... by shawnlinThis is a very advanced form of solar power.
Wonder how many hours it needs in the sun to get x energy though.
I'll put this right next to...
by paintguru - 8/2/08 9:52 AM In reply to: MIT stores solar energy like plants - good idea me thinks... by shawnlin...all the "cure of cancer" stories I have seen lately. Wake me when they have something that they can produce on a mass scale with reasonable a reasonable cost structure and in the end, not produce something far worse then we have right now.
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