Molten salt nuclear reactor technology documentary
Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
81–90 of 136 posts
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#82The rather extreme losses associated with electricity > heat > heat engine > electricity seem like an absolute deal killer. Assuming they are at an extreme 50% round trip efficiency you need to be extremely cheap to have a hope of breaking even. Worse heat has fairly low energy density and cools over time so they can’t really scale the up or down that much. It might be possible if they where starting with heat, but f…
If energy is free or nearly free and it’s being wasted currently, then how much does the efficiency really matter?
It may encourage energy to be generated unnecessarily, producing unnecessary CO2.
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#83Oh lord, can't you pick less conflicting names? Why don't I just name my company Jeff Bezos LLC?
I agree. Why do they have to pick a whole name of a country at the beginning?
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#84Similar technology already in production in the UK: https://www.sunamp.com They make a molten salt heat battery for homes and businesses. You store excess heat or electricity in the battery, and use it for central heating and hot water. Since you’re not trying to convert it back to electricity it’s very efficient. It basically replaces a large expensive water cylinder with a smallish box. PS: I have no connection wit…
Are you sure sunamp is molten salt? To me, molten salt is to store energy at a very high temperature in insulated containers.
I thought sunamp is some kind of room temperature phase change material that does not require heavy insulation.
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#85Similar technology already in production in the UK: https://www.sunamp.com They make a molten salt heat battery for homes and businesses. You store excess heat or electricity in the battery, and use it for central heating and hot water. Since you’re not trying to convert it back to electricity it’s very efficient. It basically replaces a large expensive water cylinder with a smallish box. PS: I have no connection wit…
Are you sure sunamp is molten salt? To me, molten salt is to store energy at a very high temperature in insulated containers. I thought sunamp is some kind of room temperature phase change material that does not require heavy insulation.
I’m not at all sure, you’re almost certainly right.
(Not knowing much about the chemistry, I’m naively conflating the two)
Edit to add: Sunamp has non-zero heat loss, so it must be stored hot rather than room temperature, but it might not be very hot.
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#86Molten salt nuclear reactor technology documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8iRl1CkuK8
I believe the molten salt technology used for thermal energy storage is not directly related to molten salt nuclear reactors:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_energy_storage#Molten_... (sodium nitrate, potassium nitrate and calcium nitrate)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Molten_salt_reactor#Fused_salt...
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#87Similar technology already in production in the UK: https://www.sunamp.com They make a molten salt heat battery for homes and businesses. You store excess heat or electricity in the battery, and use it for central heating and hot water. Since you’re not trying to convert it back to electricity it’s very efficient. It basically replaces a large expensive water cylinder with a smallish box. PS: I have no connection wit…
Are you sure sunamp is molten salt? To me, molten salt is to store energy at a very high temperature in insulated containers. I thought sunamp is some kind of room temperature phase change material that does not require heavy insulation.
There are other alternative technologies to store energy as heat, in particular molten silicon:
- https://reneweconomy.com.au/mit-team-gains-ground-on-molten-...
- https://1414degrees.com.au/ (which looks like a competitor for malta)
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#88Similar technology already in production in the UK: https://www.sunamp.com They make a molten salt heat battery for homes and businesses. You store excess heat or electricity in the battery, and use it for central heating and hot water. Since you’re not trying to convert it back to electricity it’s very efficient. It basically replaces a large expensive water cylinder with a smallish box. PS: I have no connection wit…
Are you sure sunamp is molten salt? To me, molten salt is to store energy at a very high temperature in insulated containers. I thought sunamp is some kind of room temperature phase change material that does not require heavy insulation.
Was going to mention Sunamp.
It does use a PCM, and that is described as a salt so maybe it's where the confusion comes from.
It also has far better insulation than equivalent devices (hot water cylinders). Typically VIPs, although I've read a few reports about the casing being compromised recently and that wouldn't play nicely with the panel.
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#89Molten salt nuclear reactor technology documentary https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s8iRl1CkuK8
Many years ago when you could visit Dounreay nuclear power station I remember leaning they used liquid sodium as the main coolant. It was used to transfer heat our of the reactor from what I recall.
Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt
#90The rather extreme losses associated with electricity > heat > heat engine > electricity seem like an absolute deal killer. Assuming they are at an extreme 50% round trip efficiency you need to be extremely cheap to have a hope of breaking even. Worse heat has fairly low energy density and cools over time so they can’t really scale the up or down that much. It might be possible if they where starting with heat, but f…
I'm not an engineer, and the article doesn't state it, but there are probably benefits to the technology. For one thing I imagine the heat-content and thus energy storage density must be rather high, while the storage material is probably quite cheap. Water would have (a lot) lesser density, and most electrical batteries are way more expensive. Additionally the molten salt may be good at insulating itself or at least…
The main paper behind this actually dismisses insulation losses as minimal at scale.
It suggests burying the tanks, and using earth as insulation.
In a different section, it suggests putting hot and cold stuff in the same tank, which sounds incompatible though...