Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
mercurynews.com
Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
1–10 of 46 posts
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#2"Energy bills would be essentially zero," he says. I'm not sure how this statement is accurate (or relevant). Flywheels do not produce energy, they store kinetic energy. Other comments...
(1) I seem to recall an automobile developed in the 60s or 70s by another National Lab that siphoned off stored power from a flywheel (driven by a smaller motor). IIRC, they had hellish issues with handling since the flywheel created gyro effects as the car turned. [Sorry, I couldn't find a link to the project. ]
(2) The failure modes for flywheels aren't pretty. This seems to be the big detractor from other technologies like the MIT microturbine [1]. You wouldn't want one of 'em to experience catastrophic failure when attached to the cellphone in your pants. To get sufficient shielding, you have to substantially up the weight of the power storage unit, thereby killing your power-to-weight ratios.
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#3"laptop running a sophisticated math program"
I wonder what that is?
Or is it just Mathematica or something?
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#4Bob Yamamoto, a mechanical engineer and principal investigator on the project, compares working with Post to being around a college student with 60 years
of experience. Post, he says, exudes a level of enthusiasm that's hard to keep up with.
Wow. What an inspiration.
Reminds me of Dr. Hinohara, a physician and educator who has been contributing to the medical field since 1941 and remains active in the field today at the age of 101.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/23/shigeaki-hinohara-t...
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#5"laptop running a sophisticated math program" I wonder what that is? Or is it just Mathematica or something?
99% sure it's Mathematica.
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#6I worked at Lawrence Livermore as an intern last summer. There were many people, including Post, that have worked at the lab for their entire lives. It was normal to sit next to scientists that were well beyond retirement age during lunch. While a career at the lab may not come with the many luxuries offered at other opportunities in Silicon Valley, it didn't seem bad either. People (including myself) were very happy to work there. Post, as well as many others, were a huge source of inspiration and taught me to do what I am passionate about in my career.
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#7"Energy bills would be essentially zero," he says. I'm not sure how this statement is accurate (or relevant). Flywheels do not produce energy, they store kinetic energy. Other comments... (1) I seem to recall an automobile developed in the 60s or 70s by another National Lab that siphoned off stored power from a flywheel (driven by a smaller motor). IIRC, they had hellish issues with handling since the flywheel create…
The story leaves a lot to be desired in terms of defining technology and specifying methods.
Depending on how you buy/sell power, and if you have access to TOU metering, you could spin up flywheels with cheap power and sell it back when rates are higher. If you've got your own generation on site (solar PV, wind, tidal), you could bank excess energy with flywheels.
In terms of storage, flywheel round-trip efficiency is very, very good, above 90% for well-designed systems. The problem has always been storage density and cost. Beacon Power produces 25KWh flywheels priced at around $1000 /Wh.
Add into this the failure modes (Beacon's systems are installed underground in concrete culvert pipe with a several-ton lid cap), and remaining problems with precession (even the Earth's rotation around its axis peturbs flywheels), and they have some significant hurdles. For mobile uses (automobiles, etc.) these problems are compounded.
My money's on large, cheap batteries for grid-scale storage (molten salt or liquid metal), though flywheels for short-cycle load/generation matching may play a role.
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#8"laptop running a sophisticated math program" I wonder what that is? Or is it just Mathematica or something?
Scientists at Lawrence Livermore use a lot of software that I believe is not available to the public (e.g. scientific simulations). Mesquite is one custom LLNL software [1]. MATLAB is very common, but I didn't see much (if any) usage of Mathematica (intern last summer).
[1] https://iscr.llnl.gov/annual_report/fy2005/subcontracts/kraf...
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#9"Energy bills would be essentially zero," he says. I'm not sure how this statement is accurate (or relevant). Flywheels do not produce energy, they store kinetic energy. Other comments... (1) I seem to recall an automobile developed in the 60s or 70s by another National Lab that siphoned off stored power from a flywheel (driven by a smaller motor). IIRC, they had hellish issues with handling since the flywheel create…
>Flywheels do not produce energy, they store kinetic energy.
The article says, twice, that his design both stores and generates energy. Have they got something wrong? I'm aware that they're using the term 'flywheel' pretty broadly, and his newer device might not be a traditional flywheel. They use scare-quotes a couple of times when using the term flywheel, so they seem to be saying it's not a flywheel.
> His latest project -- perfecting a prototype of his lightweight "flywheel," a cylindrical, rotating battery -- could revolutionize the energy industry, storing and creating energy better than any conventional electrobattery on the planet.
> Post has been called the "father of the modern flywheel," a title he dismisses as "too generous." The rapidly spinning devices not only store energy with minimal losses, but they also generate it.
The relevance is also mentioned in the story - he wanted to "apply physics to help solve the world's energy problems" and banks of these in power stations might help. Isn't storing the excess power generated by solar farms during the day a problem? Couldn't something like this help with that?
Re: Livermore scientist still reinventing the wheel at 94
#10I worked at Lawrence Livermore as an intern last summer. There were many people, including Post, that have worked at the lab for their entire lives. It was normal to sit next to scientists that were well beyond retirement age during lunch. While a career at the lab may not come with the many luxuries offered at other opportunities in Silicon Valley, it didn't seem bad either. People (including myself) were very happy…
My friend from college has been shuttling between MIT and Lawrence Livermore for a few years now (he does particle detection for the nuclear fusion experiments). Having talked to him at length, I'm convinced that while a career at the lab may not be as flashy as some of the best careers across the bay, it would be an absolutely wonderful way to live life and contribute to the world through science.
I'm not nearly smart enough to work there, but boy do I look up to those who do!