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Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

theatlantic.com

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Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#71

Post by nitrogen »

starpilot wrote: post #57
hop wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Cover it with an insulated top when not in use. Your pool is colder than ambient because the top surface is constantly evaporating, leaving behind the slower moving molecules. A solar heater would work better (if you have sun) because it will absorb more energy than ambiant air convected over the same area. And you would need a fan for a heatsink if its wasn't windy. http://www.amazon.com/SmartPool-SunHeater-Above-Gr…

Covering an in-ground pool is a huge hassle.

It's a lot easier if you build a motorized cover in from the start.

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#72

Post by olefoo »

dstein wrote: post #32
nickpinkston wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha I think you've got that backwards. It's probably better to make a social network look green and sell the carbon credits! How that for monetization?!?

You nailed it! A social network for carbon credit sharing. Call Sequoia.

I expect to see this very thing funded by this time next week.

Looks like someone else has already proven the market http://sandbag.org.uk/

But since they aren't doing it in the bay area it's an easy run for a motivated team with strong leadership.

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#73

Post by forgottenpaswrd »

ramchip wrote: post #61
anthonyb wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That entropy always increases? How exactly does that apply in the case of focusing photons?

Disclaimer: not a physicist. My intuitive understanding is that, as you heat the absorber, it becomes hotter and hotter, until it reaches the same temperature as the sun's surface. At this point, the absorber (also a blackbody) radiates just as much energy as it receives from the sun; thus there is no more heat exchange. Otherwise, you would be taking two objects at the same temperature and making one hotter and the…

My intuition is that you "cold" your absorber when you extract work from the electrons. One of the big changes of recent years had been power electronics that let you convert the charge-voltage pair into anything you need(like the voltage to charge a battery).

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#74

Post by sandGorgon »

dstein wrote: post #32
nickpinkston wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Haha I think you've got that backwards. It's probably better to make a social network look green and sell the carbon credits! How that for monetization?!?

You nailed it! A social network for carbon credit sharing. Call Sequoia.

Or rather, Kleiner-Perkins

http://money.cnn.com/2010/03/26/news/companies/terralliance_...

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#75

Post by nait »

rajat wrote: post #30

I don't get it. Why isn't Google investing in this along with robot self-driving cars? Why isn't Khosla investing in this? Or is this the article that gets them interested? I don't pretend to have the engineering knowledge to know whether this will work or not, whether it's snake oil or not, but surely, if an electric sports car for the rich can get funded, so can this guy. I'm assuming the guy isn't peddling snake-o…

It seems like he still needs to proof that his idea is working. Other scientist say that it seems to be a good idea. So investing in this is a huge risk since even though the concept might actually work it may turn out that there's economical sane way to enter mass production. In addition there's still the doubt of "too good to be true" because it usually is. On one hand it is probably this kind of thinking which makes us pass on great opportunities, on the other it keeps us from sending money to help getting a multi-million dollar transaction through. Somewhat related also with the funding problem but on a larger scale was this guy http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1996321846673788606# Judge for yourself if you would invest 1 billion to (prehaps) get a working fusion reactor.

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#76

Post by ajb »

gvb wrote: post #28
tocomment wrote: post #7

How would this work? Surely sunlight can't create enough heat to ionize a gas (creating plasma?). Why don't the whole hydrogen atoms go through the membrane to the lower pressure area? How does he alternate which side is heated? How does he cool the other side?

> How would this work? Surely sunlight can't create enough heat to ionize a gas (creating plasma?). He isn't ionizing the gas, he is increasing the gas pressure by heating it. "Only instead of using those pressure gradients to move an axle or a wheel, he’s forcing ions through a membrane." See next for why that is important. > Why don't the whole hydrogen atoms go through the membrane to the lower pressure area? He u…

Electrons are a lot smaller than protons. Why wouldn't they go through the membrane?

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#77

Post by demallien »

dusklight wrote: post #20
Vekz wrote: post #15

Could someone explain the differences in acquiring funding as an inventor vs an entrepreneur? Reason I ask is that I was recently laid off by a failed startup that had secured and wasted an investment in the amount of 2 million. After that experience I went on to do some contract work with another early stage startup. They had no solid idea or vision for a product and had funding in the amount of 1.5 million. It is c…

It is not clear that he has been looking for investors .. from the article it seems he has been looking for government grants, which would have given him money without asking for equity in return. Johnson may have initially wanted to fund his invention purely from his own money, keeping all the equity, but as the money started running out he has been looking for alternatives.

It does look like that, though you do end up wondering why. Even 10% equity in the company that owns the patents on efficient solar energy generation is going to be wealthy beyond their hopes of ever being able to spend the money.

Maybe its just that he likes being the boss, and not having to answer to anyone, including investors...

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#78

Post by revorad »

brc wrote: post #6
sasvari wrote: post #4

I remember reading about the JTEC a couple of years ago, but I am very curious to see an actual working version of it. Could be the hottest thing around ...

Right - surely they can get a scale model of it working. I take all these announcements with a grain of salt now. We're always reading about these breakthroughs, then nothing. I mean, if he had even a small working prototype, he could be on the news and gaining investors and traction.

I'd rather be optimistic than so cynical about such important inventions that have huge potential, even if the probability of success is very low.

I mean, if he had even a small working prototype, he could be on the news and gaining investors and traction.

You mean just like all the great inventors of all times? If only life was so fair and rosy.

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#79

Post by revorad »

teilo wrote: post #3
russellallen wrote: post #2

Well the idea sounds coherent. No idea if it would work or not. It's not a fuel cell though - its more like a no-moving-parts replacement for a Stirling engine.

Right. He called it a fuel cell because it was the only way he could get past the funding gatekeepers who dismissed his ideas without properly examining or understanding them.

Yeah sounds similar to Microtechnology rebranding itself as Nanotechnology and NMR as MRI.

Re: Super-Soaker inventor may have solar-powered fuel cell breakthrough

#80

Post by jacquesm »

catch23 wrote: post #58
jacquesm wrote: post #46

Sorry guys, I got there first: http://pics.ww.com/v/jacques/renewables/concentrator/ Patent pending ;) Yes, I realize there is a lot more to it than that. However, there have been solar concentrators of all kinds of varieties, I've built a couple of proto-types the one in the pictures above was one of the more promising ones because it allows the collector to be stationary. Interesting tidbit from that experiment, it…

well, I think the real tech isn't the concentrator but the membrane that converts heat to electricity by forcing ions through a proton-exchange membrane.

Yes, of course.

I had a ton of fun building that stuff though. And with co-generation you use the 'old' tech and use the byproduct (heat) for some other purpose. That way you can get to very high efficiencies too.

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