Power Felt Converts Heat to Power

[freggo]

[citation][nom]amuffin[/nom]The things this could do for everyone that uses Folding @ Home.CPU Loads, generates heat, powers PSU to power parts, repeat.Lots of energy with minimal waste![/citation]

Get it efficient enough and the heat from the CPU generates enough electricity to power the whole computer. We finally get our perpetuum mobile and screw the laws of physics 🙂

 

[spookyman]

[citation][nom]ugoing2[/nom]"capable of converting body heat to electricity"... Does anyone remember The Matrix?[/citation]


Though the movie missed on that making batteries out of humans which in reality make poor batteries.

You can generate more energy from solar or wind then you could of a group of human bodies.

 

[alidan]

[citation][nom]spagunk[/nom]Or you could just give scientists the means to complete the research on thorium Liquid fluoride reactors. Just sayin'.[/citation]

how about both, but only build new nuke plants to be easily upgraded when the process is finalized.

 

[Zagen30]

[citation][nom]spookyman[/nom]Though the movie missed on that making batteries out of humans which in reality make poor batteries.You can generate more energy from solar or wind then you could of a group of human bodies.[/citation]

Apparently the original script had it that all the human brains were being networked to make a supercomputer, but the studio heads thought the general audience wouldn't understand that and convinced them to change it to the battery explanation. So they went from a reason that could possibly make sense to one that doesn't make any sense, because, as you mentioned, humans really don't generate enough energy to be worth it, especially when factoring in the energy required to feed them in the first place.

 

[djscribbles]

[citation][nom]nforce4max[/nom]I wish that such development was given priority over less important things such as Facebook for example. We desperately need to move on from using old tech that is expensive and extremely limiting. Fossil fuels is so twentieth century, higher density sources of energy are needed and efficient use of energy needs be prioritized so that costs can go down.[/citation]

Nine women can't have a baby in one month.
You can't simply throw all the worlds engineers and scientists at one problem and get it solved quickly.

 

[djscribbles]

[citation][nom]americanbrian[/nom]140 nanowatts...... Does anyone here know how inconceivably small that is? You would need 7 of these stacks to make a milliwatt (980nW), and 7000 to make 1 watt. Let's put that in terms you might understand, to light an 11w CFL bulb (which is your standard 100W equivalent in old light bulbs) you need 77,000 stacks of these devices, (and all placed at the optimal heat differential). How much energy does it cost to produce and what is its lifetime? What is the optimal heat differential? Everyone does realise that the matrix is fiction yeah? Honestly, I thought more people that "knew science" would read this as opposed to what a lot of the other commenters clearly are... (stupidheads). Excuse me while I go enjoy my time on facebook talking to my friends for less energy spent than in the olden days where I would have to mail everyone I knew around the world to keep in touch, or phone for an ENORMOUS phone bill. Yeah, lets plough money into this research. It is totally just what the world needs.....(idiots)[/citation]

There was a time when computers were only capable of doing basic math that anyone with a proper slide rule could do, and I'll never understand why they continued to plough money into the damn things, we all knew it wasn't going to pay off....

 

[ProDigit10]

touch your phone, and end up with a frozen finger! Lol!

 

[americanbrian]

[citation][nom]DjScribbles[/nom]There was a time when computers were only capable of doing basic math that anyone with a proper slide rule could do, and I'll never understand why they continued to plough money into the damn things, we all knew it wasn't going to pay off....[/citation]

It is more about how much energy is actually available in total from these heat differentials, and how much it will cost in energy to produce these things. If it is a net energy cost and they take 20 years to return the manufacturing cost (in energy) like solar panels for instance, it is unlikely we will be wearing the same clothes for 20years, or using the same phone, or any of the apps that have been named.

Sorry, I am only a engineer who worked on power generation, now studying for my PhD, but hey, what do I know? Maybe we could power the earth by walking on hamster wheels etc etc. Keep dreaming.

 

[maestintaolius]

[citation][nom]The_Trutherizer[/nom]I've always wondered why they don't use sterling engines on the part of a car's exhaust where it connects to the engine. It get's red hot there and could probably power one or even two small sterling engines to provide more power to the electric engine if it is a hybrid.[/citation]
Because the added weight and cost of the components for the power return isn't worth it.

 

[TheBigTroll]

time to coat everything i have that produces heat with this stuff.

 

[bucknutty]

140 nanowatts......

Does anyone here know how inconceivably small that is? You would need 7 of these stacks to make a milliwatt (980nW), and 7000 to make 1 watt. Let's put that in terms you might understand, to light an 11w CFL bulb (which is your standard 100W equivalent in old light bulbs) you need 77,000 stacks of these devices, (and all placed at the optimal heat differential).

How much energy does it cost to produce and what is its lifetime? What is the optimal heat differential? Everyone does realise that the matrix is fiction yeah?

Honestly, I thought more people that "knew science" would read this as opposed to what a lot of the other commenters clearly are... (stupidheads).

Excuse me while I go enjoy my time on facebook talking to my friends for less energy spent than in the olden days where I would have to mail everyone I knew around the world to keep in touch, or phone for an ENORMOUS phone bill. Yeah, lets plough money into this research. It is totally just what the world needs.....(idiots)

Hey Doc, Research and development like this is what leads to other advances. We have no idea what gains this type of material might yield with 5, or 10 years of study. I also don’t remember seeing anything in the article about the physical size of the “stack”, or any estimated costs to produce a “stack”. From the limited amount of info in the article a “stack” might be 1mmx1mm and it might cost $0.001 to produce? Don’t be so quick to troll and call people names. Its unfortunate it seems your extensive formal education has “taught” the creativity out of you.

P.S. The average 11 watt CFL bulb puts out about 550 lumens of light. The average 60 watt incandescent bulb puts out about 890 lumens. The average 100 watt incandescent bulb puts out about 1750 lumens of light. To get a similar light output as a traditional 100 watt incandescent bulb you would need roughly a 28-30 watt CFL.

 

[americanbrian]

@ bucknutty

I have access and have read the original work in nanoletters.

the device appears to be approx 10cm x 5cm.

It gives a maximum output actually recorded @ a temperature delta of 50K (or 50C your choice, same size of units). In its current form it can not stand temperatures over 390K absolute or ~117C as most people know it. It may deform and degrade before this.

The cost of carbon nanotubes is currently ~$95 per gram. And there are many other chemicals used in producing this.

Don't take me the wrong way. This guy is doing some VERY COOL stuff. It is the sensationalising I object to. I am all about learning new way to do cool stuff, the issue is the total available energy to reclaim is always going to be small in comparison to what we use/need.

When it come to big power, Combined Cycle Heating and Power Gas turbines already recover a large amount of waste heat (up to 80% absolute efficiency) so we are talking the a MAX of 20% for relevant power sources. Could be great (20% of 30 Gigawatts is still 6 Gigawatts), but to be honest a whole lot of work still would need to be done for this to happen (orders of magnitude are hugely misaligned on that power yeah).

Use for cell phones and crap are not really where I think this would fit in at all. But they are popular and people like them, so that is where it sells (cells) 😀.