Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt • Hacker News Board

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#131

Post by lawrenceyan » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 8:04 PM UTC

iainmerrick wrote: post #79

Similar 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…

Sunamp is missing the “cold portion” of the system that Malta has set up, drastically decreasing energy efficiency by not being able to maximize the advantage of heat differentials in the Carnot process.

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#132

Post by TaylorAlexander » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 8:27 PM UTC

codeisawesome wrote: post #104

TaylorAlexander wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well 2035 was the year they discovered the catalyst that made the reaction hold for months instead of hours. It took years to commercialize though.

Haha what reference is this? I have such an odd feeling I’ve heard this in dystopian sci fi

Hah I made it up! I do a bit of sci if writing though.

http://tlalexander.com/sanctuary/

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#133

Post by partingshots » Thu, Dec 20, 2018, 9:02 PM UTC

Bombthecat wrote: post #97

Just a question: why does a sub from Google need to raise money? I would question the confidence if a super big company starts something and is like: uh you know. We collect money from someone else.

The money itself pretty much has no value.

The big thing is strategic partnership and support from industry. If you look at who’s invested into Malta from the companies they list in the article, everyone one of them is highly relevant to some part of the business model / supply chain of Malta, with each company generally being at the top of their respective industries.

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#134

Post by bayesian_horse » Fri, Dec 21, 2018, 10:18 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #90

bayesian_horse wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

Maybe not both at the same time?

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#135

Post by edmundsauto » Fri, Dec 21, 2018, 5:44 PM UTC

08-15 wrote: post #110

cerebellum42 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Start-Stop in cars does save a considerable amount, which is a fact that can easily be verified, so you pretty much disqualified yourself there with "for zero fuel actually saved"... The additional wear is not on the engine itself but on the starter components and those are simply designed for the additional load so that they can deal with the starts and stops.

A "considerable amount", huh? Can you please verify it for us and put a number on it? How much is it over the lifetime of a typical family car?

Looks like around 10%. https://www.edmunds.com/car-reviews/features/do-stop-start-s...

Re: Alphabet spinoff Malta raises $26M for technology to store power in molten salt

#136

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Dec 25, 2018, 12:20 AM UTC

londons_explore wrote: post #95

blurbleblurble wrote: post #43

This is extremely exciting technology! Any energy science aficionado worth their salt knows that molten salt can have very high energy density.

The paper says that at around 600C, nearly all materials have the same energy density. Molten salt was chosen because it is a liquid, cheap, safe, and stable. The paper also considers using rocks, but they're tricky to pump...

[deleted]