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Energy from burning iron is about tenth of energy from burning gasoline. Lithium ion batteries are also a tenth of gasoline, and they are reusable. It is also a
by ianburrell 3y ago
Energy from burning iron is about tenth of energy from burning gasoline. Lithium ion batteries are also a tenth of gasoline, and they are reusable. It is also a lot easier to distribute energy as electricity than iron dust. It takes energy to refine iron or to turn iron oxide back into iron, which would be less efficient than using electricity directly.
Finally, manufactured fuels like hydrogen or ammonia should do the job for places like ships that can’t use electricity.
- kaliszad 3y agoHydrogen is really not the answer in many places because of its complex physics. Ammonia is probably more useful as fertilizer instead of fuel but whatever. We can probably have a win-win situation if we use sodium with sodium fuel cells: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37548917 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37548917 You could even recycle the sodium hydroxide later if you really wanted or neutralize it and dump it while on the way.