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]dtu.dk
With the new hydrogen tablet, it becomes much simpler to use the environmentally-friendly energy of hydrogen. Hydrogen is a non-polluting fuel, but since it is a light gas it occupies too much volume, and it is flammable. Consequently, effective and safe storage of hydrogen has challenged researchers world-wide for almost three decades. At the Technical University of Denmark, DTU, an interdisciplinary team has developed a hydrogen tablet which enables storage and transport of hydrogen in solid form.
“Should you drive a car 600 km using gaseous hydrogen at normal pressure, it would require a fuel tank with a size of nine cars. With our technology, the same amount of hydrogen can be stored in a normal gasoline tank”, says Professor Claus Hviid Christensen, Department of Chemistry at DTU.
The hydrogen tablet is safe and inexpensive. In this respect it is different from most other hydrogen storage technologies. You can literally carry the material in your pocket without any kind of safety precaution. The reason is that the tablet consists solely of ammonia absorbed efficiently in sea-salt. Ammonia is produced by a combination of hydrogen with nitrogen from the surrounding air, and the DTU-tablet therefore contains large amounts of hydrogen. Within the tablet, hydrogen is stored as long as desired, and when hydrogen is needed, ammonia is released through a catalyst that decomposes it back to free hydrogen. When the tablet is empty, you merely give it a “shot” of ammonia and it is ready for use again.
Originally posted by cadric
I posted about this a few days ago in another thread:
www.abovetopsecret.com...
Originally posted by Wgatenson
Yes, the new Li Ion are great, and there uses for regenerative-breaking is great. But you aren't taking into account the losses in charging, and discharging a battery are arround 40%, while modern electrolizers are %92+ efficent in cracking water into hydrogen. Also a battery large enough to move a car 300mi would cost like $25,000 and add a signifigant amount of weight to the car. BTW the "whatever else" is oxygen. Granted the 92% is not taking into account the the losses from leakage, and the efficency of the fuel cell itself.
Originally posted by shbaz
Yep. All you need is 300,000 square miles full of vats filled with little bugs, chirping away in the sunshine.
Originally posted by stumason
Yeah, you can tell you dont have a clue what your talking about.
Originally posted by Simon666
Originally posted by stumason
Yeah, you can tell you dont have a clue what your talking about.
Biological organisms like algae have nowhere near the effiency of sunlight conversion into energy as solar panels.
Originally posted by shbaz
80% charge in less than a minute? Better than shovelling tablets into your car. Better than losing half of the electrical energy splitting water into hydrogen and then whatever else, probably losing a total of 70% or more of the initial energy by the time it gets a car moving.
Originally posted by Wgatenson
Has anyone noticed how this story was not picked up by ANY of the major news outlets? I don't know, to me this seems like a large breakthrough, and step twords the "hydrogen economy" or atleast a feasable way to start introducing hydrogen/electric cars. Is it a cover-up, or just not as big a breakthrough as I thought?
Originally posted by Aelita
Originally posted by shbaz
80% charge in less than a minute? Better than shovelling tablets into your car. Better than losing half of the electrical energy splitting water into hydrogen and then whatever else, probably losing a total of 70% or more of the initial energy by the time it gets a car moving.
This battery was meant for cellphones and PDAs, but obviously not for the cars.
Shbaz, if you know physics at all, please try to calculate the current needed to charge a car battery (in a real electric car) in 1 min, when hooked up to your home power outlet. I get between 1 and 100 kiloAmps, even discounting the efficiency of teh battery.
A current of 10 kAmps will probably vaporize your house and may cause serious damage to its inhabitants.
[edit on 14-9-2005 by Aelita]
Originally posted by Dasher
what happens to the nitrogen released in this process? won't there be nitrogen pollution?
daved
Originally posted by shbaz
In the article it says specifically that it has applications for cars.
Yes I know physics, I'm an electrical engineering Junior.
These would either need to be charged by special fueling stations with a huge capacitor array or access to a HV power line. Super-capacitors could carry that charge in a relatively small space, but would be super-expensive to match. In other words, you wouldn't charge this battery in one minute at home.
Originally posted by AceOfBase
The article says it can be used for hybrid vehicles which only have to provide power for a short while and it doesn't bear the full load of powering the vehicle. It just offsets the load from the combustion engine.
Originally posted by AceOfBase
I don't think the 60 charge is possible for a massive car battery.
There would probably be the same health concerns about charging stations with that kind of power as they have about high voltage overhead power lines.
Originally posted by AceOfBaseAccording to an article on wikipedia a 7kWh battery pack would require a power source of 336kW for that 60 second charge. A typical household outlet can provide around 1.5kW in the US. That's a long way away from 336KW. That 7kWh charge would last less than an hour at 60MPH and take you a distance of about 40 miles.
I think we'll have to rely on overnight charging if battery vehicles are ever used.
Originally posted by AceOfBaseIf battery electrics ever become popular and thousands of cars are plugged into the grid I think it will be a big strain on the power companies. Thare are some utility companies which have to load shed when lots of people are merely running air conditioners during the summertime so it'll be even worse with vehicles added to that demand.
Originally posted by AceOfBaseI think hybrids are a much better choice and they can be complemented with plug-in technology.
Originally posted by shbaz
Who says we're limited to a 7kwh battery pack anyway?
Originally posted by AceOfBase
If you used a 27kWh battery it would requre a power source capable of about 1,300kW to charge that battery in 1 minute (using the wiki figures).
A typical gas station around here has about 3 or 4 vehicles filling up at any one time and others vehicles waiting in line to fill up so theres not really much time to resupply the capacitor with energy in between vehicles.