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That is really cool! How long before people start hacking these in their garage?
by alexchamberlain 15y ago
That is really cool! How long before people start hacking these in their garage?
- stephengillie 15y agoThis is a ceramic furnace as large as a washing machine, as heavy as a Honda Civic, that needs to be 6 times hotter inside than their home stove/oven/range, and the fuel (ZnO) is safe to eat in small quantities (breakfast cereal) but is toxic(?) to breathe. I'm having trouble seeing why it would take long for a startup to start baking the clay for one of these in every home.
- Someone 15y agoZinc boils at just over 900 degrees centigrade. I guess that might make this a bit risky as a device. If, as you say, Zinc in gas form is toxic, that might be a problem. Two by three feet and 10000 suns translates to "on a perfectly sunny day, needs a 200 by 300 feet solar collector" to produce the required heat. Actual numbers for a machine operating throughout the year will be quite a bit higher.
- stephengillie 15y agoWhile the goal of the project was to create a 100% renewable energy source based on sunlight, another energy source could probably be used.
- sliverstorm 15y agoThis is a heat engine. Your options for renewable heat are mostly geothermal or solar.
- alexchamberlain 15y agoThe question is... if we connected the hydrogen to a fuel cell, is it more efficient than a steam generator?
- sliverstorm 15y agoI am skeptical. Large steam generators are very, very good.
- knieveltech 15y agoSpeaking from experience (DIY foundry mishap involving brass), even small amounts of airborne zinc fumes are sufficient to knock a healthy adult flat on their ass for four days with superflu style symptoms.
- sliverstorm 15y agoIf I was breathing 900C+ zinc gasses, I don't think its toxicity would be anywhere on my radar of concerns at the moment.
- sliverstorm 15y agoNitpick, the modern Civics weigh about 2600-2800lbs, so it's about 70% of a Civic. Certainly the right order of magnitude though.
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoThere's something ironic in you nit-picking about a 'modern' weight measure and then giving an answer in pounds (lbs). 2700lbs is ~1200 kg
- colanderman 15y agoNitpick: kilograms aren't a measure of weight.
- pbhjpbhj 15y agoLol, got me. Massive error on my part.
- colanderman 15y agoNitpick: 3.6 times hotter than a home oven, not 6. Fahrenheit is not a linear scale, you must subtract absolute zero (about -460°F) from measurements (or convert to Kelvin) before computing ratios.