Shiny Doom Forum

rklee

An HTML of my Fusion Power presentation.
http://www.qualityimporting.com/rklee/Fusion%20Power_files/frame.htm

An HTML of my friend's Fuel Cells Presentation
http://www.qualityimporting.com/rklee/fuelcell_files/frame.htm

An HTML of my friend's Air Powered Vehicles Presentation
http://www.qualityimporting.com/rklee/MDI_files/frame.htm

Hope you all find these interesting. I really like the air powered vehicle idea.... it reminds me of those toys we used to play with. I think the main problem is efficiency of compression. A lot of energy is lost due to heat during compression. However I like it cause you are using electricity from another source and since we will need to improve power plants anyways.... then it should be good.

The Fuel Cells also seem very promising... I actually never knew how it worked until watching this presentation (There's another one that I think details some of the workings a bit better but I can't get a copy of it).

The fusion power I think is a bit further than I had expected. I didn't know they already have generators that can porduce more than they use. However, it is appalling to know how much US is spending on Iraq when we could be building dozens of power plants with that sort of money.
There was another presntation on the high intensity laser (again I was not able to get the presentation slides from that one either) that's being used over in the middle east to shoot down missiles... they're working on mobile ones and they already curerntly have stationary ones.... I find it even more appalling that we spend 87 billion dollars on IRAQ and in the meantime those lasers are costing well under 1 billion (I forget exactly... I believe it was under 100 mil not 100% sure)... and currently I believe israel only has 1 stationary one.... that's absurd....
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"My Heart Is In the Work" - Andrew Carnegie

Mogri · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 5:30 am Post subject:

Speaking of energy:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/3201030.stm
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"A club without the right direction, is a misguided stick."
-- Master Wham

Trool · Good Karma Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 1486

Yay fun tech stories. I didn't think the fusion was anywhere near what it is at now...yay. Question though. Does anyone know the effeciency of the different power plat types around? And also how does the efficiency of the air car compare to that of a gas car and a purely electric car???
_________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov

rklee · Posted: Mon Oct 20, 2003 1:44 pm Post subject:

I believe most power plants run at around 20-30% efficiency however I believe this is calculated by the amount of heat produced versus the amout of power output. Steam turbine systems aren't very efficient. Any conversion of power is inefficient... heat to electricity is one. Also motion to electricity probably isn't too efficient (wind and hydropowered). Therefore the efficiency of a powerplant that is normally talked about is the total efficiency of heat to power rather than the fuel itself. In the presentation I was mostly speaking of the process of the fusion reaction itself. Of course fusion power creates more power per kg of fuel as compared to coal. Fusion is even less weight per power. However I still think a main problem is heat to electricity conversion. I don't doubt that Fusion power plants are around 20-30 also.

I think in terms of the electric, gasoline, and air car you must consider that they are different types of power. Electric, chemical, and kinetic energies. Again I don't know the numbers however I don't thikn even if numbers are given... they won't mean much. You have power in batteries, mass of fuel, and pressure of air. In my opinion they cannot be compared in a very good way directly. Perhaps you could talk about the inefficiencies of each but not directly comparing them in terms of efficiency. I think it may be comparable if u consider the amount of work required to create the pressure for the air to compare with using electricity by itself directly to power the car... but I still am not sure how you would consider this to gasoline....

Just what I think... enlighten me Smile

_________________
"My Heart Is In the Work" - Andrew Carnegie

Trool · Good Karma Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 1486

Do all power plants still esentualy just spin something in order to generate electricity....? They just do it in slightly different ways...right?
_________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov

rklee · Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2003 9:41 am Post subject:

Yes, most do. To create electricity that's the most used way I believe. They want to try to figure out a better way to use the plasma or the heat to generate electricity but no better way yet I think.... There is thermoelectrics... if u use a peltier with a heated surface and cooled surface the heat transfer will actually create electricity. IT's interesting... you can get peltiers cheap now.... use a hairdryer on one side and ice on the other and it will power a motor. They use it in those tiny fridges in reverse.
_________________
"My Heart Is In the Work" - Andrew Carnegie

Trool · Good Karma Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 1486

I guess we're now one step closer to making something real...check this out.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3239806.stm
_________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov

Mogri · Posted: Wed Nov 26, 2003 1:20 pm Post subject:

And a picture slide-show:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/03/sci_nat_fusion_energy/html/1.stm
_________________
"A club without the right direction, is a misguided stick."
-- Master Wham

Trool · Good Karma Joined: 12 Sep 2003 Posts: 1486

well the iraq thing might be screwing something else up. Acording to the BBC the US is trying to block france's bit to build the fussion reactor in their country because France didn't want to go to iraq. Though this is acording to the BBC so there might be more to the story, I hope there is a good reason y it's better to build in Japan vs. France, I think the main factors were that France already has a fussion reasearch center in the area where they want to build the reactor, but Japan might be covering a bigger portion of the bill. Anyway u can read the whole thing at:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3336701.stm
_________________
The most exciting phrase to hear in science, the one that heralds new discoveries, isn't 'Eureka!' but rather 'hmm....that's funny.'

--Isaac Asimov