| Author | Message | ||
     Kiley Faubion (Kiley) New member Username: Kiley Post Number: 1 Registered: 5-2005 |
Hi folks, I've been curious for a really long time how to create sodium borohydride or sodium tetrahydroborate for internal combustion properties. I've asked chemistry students but they all reacted as though I were trying to summon a bomb or something; all the same answer "uh...um...borate...is used for *fill in the blank*" Mostly laboratory uses they came up with but they never seemed to answer how it is created. I understand that it sublimes straight to gas as a solid and has great energy per cubic cm for storing in a tank; correct me if I'm wrong does not need to be super-cooled. I've been stoked ever since I watched a TV program about it noticing that the flaws were very low compared to liquid hydrogen or compressed gas. Perhaps this is a good alternative energy? But the main question- how in the world do you create solid hydrogen? Anyone? | ||
| AnotherAnonymous Unregistered guest |
http://www.meta-synthesis.com/webbook/21_stad/stad05.jpg As for solid hydrogen, check a phase diagram. It ain't easy. Unless you mean as a molecule. But then you have to find something that is both stable (strong bonds) and yet will be easy to separate for reaction (weak bonds). Those two points are contradictory. If you want a solid fuel, there are more attractive cantidates. Almost any solid element will oxidize and produce energy. Something with a strong reaction to a widely available molecule, that produces no airborne waste, but only reacts under specific conditions. Elemental boron combusts with 70% - 100% oxygen, but will not sustain a burn in the typical 30% in air. Elemental boron is non toxic and very safe. Boron oxide is a glass with low melting point. You take a solid and a gas and get a glass as ash, which can be recycled back into a gas and solid. But chemical reactions are a poor way to store and transfer energy in the long run. Nuclear fusion, nuclear isomers (Ta-180m is awesome), and perhaps even antimatter should be used before too long. | ||
| Kiley Faubion (Kiley) New member Username: Kiley Post Number: 2 Registered: 5-2005 |
Perhaps you're right about chemical reactions being a little too unreliable. That's probably why it hasn't caught on- but do you really think nuclear fusion is this close?  And when you talk about Ta 180m, isn't that an ion drive? lol, I agree- that'd be really cool to see for transportation. Ion drive is a little too weak for gravity though- works great out of an atmosphere. (Forgive me if I sound as though I have no idea since I have little knowledge on physics.) | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 465 Registered: 12-2004 |
I power my house using a nuclear fusion reactor. I recommend that everyone does, and like me, they keep their reactor 150,000,000 kilometers from the house. | ||
| Kiley Faubion (Kiley) New member Username: Kiley Post Number: 3 Registered: 5-2005 |
Okay- sorry to sound un-educated, but how in the world did you manage to hook that up?? Is it yours? I really need to know the what,how,where and why- perhaps I should google it? Or are you pulling my leg- (sometimes I find myself gullible like that) Simon- you are an amazingly intresting person! | ||
| Kiley Faubion (Kiley) Junior Member Username: Kiley Post Number: 4 Registered: 5-2005 |
Ooh, wait a minute- do you use geothermal energy Simon? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 466 Registered: 12-2004 |
Do the math. | ||
| AnotherAnonymous Unregistered guest |
Ta-180m is a nuclear isomer. Which is complex to explain, but not related to ion engines. Ion engines are basically a way to take a small amount of expelled mass and moderate amount of electricity into momentum. Perfect for satellites. Isomers are misarranged atomic nuclei. When they return to their ground state, they release gamma rays. They are terribly extremely efficient at storing energy, but are notoriously unstable, except Ta-180m, which oddly is *much* more stable than ground state Ta-180 by a factor of something like 10^18. The problem is finding easy and efficient ways of charging and releasing the energy. And I use the exact same fusion source to power my house too, at least partially. (another hint) | ||
| Kiley Faubion (Kiley) Junior Member Username: Kiley Post Number: 6 Registered: 5-2005 |
The sun- I get it... Okay, I see; if you guys would have said something like 3 hundred billion tons of hydrogen and helium for the source- I'd've got it sooner... Cool though, do you get enough watts out of them? I too plan on getting solar panels for everything as well unless I can use the creek I live on to generate something without "disturbing the wildlife". Well now I feel kind of leg pulled Simon, I think I'll have to get you back somehow down the road. I was a little too excited from your statement there. Okay, Ta 180m is basically a "neutron" decaying isomer? | ||
| Simon Quellen Field (Sfield) Senior Member Username: Sfield Post Number: 467 Registered: 12-2004 |
My system produced 5 kilowatts, and is enough to run the whole farm, including the well pump, booster pumps, lighting, and the servers. We run the electric meter backwards during the day, and forwards at night, using the grid as our "storage". We expect to pay less than $200 this entire year for electricity. | ||
| Kiley Faubion (Kiley) Junior Member Username: Kiley Post Number: 7 Registered: 5-2005 |
Neat. So when you make a connection to a power line like that, do you need to hire an electrician or get special pemits or something? I'm sure you do, but where do you hook up the anode and cathode on the transformer? (I'm not going to try it on my own, don't worry) Or am I completely wrong? | ||
| AnotherAnonymous Unregistered guest |
A local neighbor is buying a quarter million dollars worth of solar panels to sell power back to PG&E, I don't think he is going to save money in the long run. Kind of ironic, you can only efficiently use solar power while hooked up to the oil/coal/nuclear grid. But if enough people did this, it would eliminate such forms of power generation. In the day, everyone could pump water up into dams, and at night the dams could power their houses. And an isomer has no subatomic particle 'decay'. Basically the protons and neutrons are doing a balancing act, arranging themselves in such a way that there is (so to speak) "space" below them. It is similar to the way electrons can be raised to higher energy levels temporarily through various means, and then will fall back down to their ground state while they release EM radiation. You can see a delayed version of this effect in a glow-in-the-dark item. Ta-180m is just a stable isomer (like a balanced stone bridge compared to a house of cards) with a lot of energy potential. For a simpler comparison, it is like lifting an object to a higher position, giving it potential energy and less stability. | ||
| Kiley Faubion (Kiley) Junior Member Username: Kiley Post Number: 8 Registered: 5-2005 |
Oh, okay. |
