Fuel Cell Charger

[GlockSpock]

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/265641170/kraftwerk-highly-innovative-portable-power-plant?ref=popular

I will be buying these if they ever hit the market, work, and are affordable. Would be great for power outages and the like.

[Dolomite_supafly]

I wonder if this could be scaled up to provide energy for household items? The biggest advantage is the run time.

 

In a true, end of the world situation, I think I would rather have this.

http://biolitestove.com/products/biolite-campstove

[GlockSpock]

I wonder if this could be scaled up to provide energy for household items? The biggest advantage is the run time.

In a true, end of the world situation, I think I would rather have this.
http://biolitestove.com/products/biolite-campstove

Yeah I have been wanting that stove for a while but the thing I posted would be perfect for weekend ice storms, etc.

[enfield]

Smells of a scam to me.

[FUJIMO]

Never seen anything or anyone on that site worth backing. But then again, I am not free with my money :) Edited February 21, 2015 by FUJIMO

[zybysco]

Fuel cells are awesome. It is only putting 2w out. That isn't enough. And I didn't see how much fuel it takes. Fuel cells are in our future, but the infrastructure isn't there yet.

[zybysco]

I wonder if this could be scaled up to provide energy for household items? The biggest advantage is the run time.

In a true, end of the world situation, I think I would rather have this.
http://biolitestove.com/products/biolite-campstove

Fuel cells come in all sizes. They use a fuel cell to power the space shuttles. Those are 12kW I think. The cool thing would be to generate your own hydrogen at home and be truly grid free.

[enfield]

Fuel cells do not provide free or even cheap electricity. They are very reliable, VERY expensive, battery substitutes. Hydrogen is not a fuel, it's a battery. You have to put the energy into it before you can take the energy out.

All of the terrestrial hydrogen is locked up in water and minerals in a low energy state. If you can figure out how to generate free hydrogen cheaply you'll become the richest person the world has ever seen. Good luck with that.

I'm building a Mr. Fusion.

[zybysco]

Hydrogen is definitely a fuel, not a battery. The issue is making hydrogen. It actually isn't that expensive to make; there just isn't a big market for it right now. It will become worthwhile when cars and the our infrastructure make the switch.

[GlockSpock]

Hydrogen is definitely a fuel, not a battery. The issue is making hydrogen. It actually isn't that expensive to make; there just isn't a big market for it right now. It will become worthwhile when cars and the our infrastructure make the switch.

Fuel cells do not provide free or even cheap electricity. They are very reliable, VERY expensive, battery substitutes. Hydrogen is not a fuel, it's a battery. You have to put the energy into it before you can take the energy out.

All of the terrestrial hydrogen is locked up in water and minerals in a low energy state. If you can figure out how to generate free hydrogen cheaply you'll become the richest person the world has ever seen. Good luck with that.

I'm building a Mr. Fusion.

Yeah, anyone with a bit of electricity can separate hydrogen and oxygen from water. Do it with solar and it would practically be free, although a small amount.

http://m.wikihow.com/Make-Oxygen-and-Hydrogen-from-Water-Using-Electrolysis

[MacGyver]

Hydrogen is kind of like corn right now. It takes more energy to get it into a usable form as fuel than you get out. Hence Enfield's battery comment. You're storing energy to be used later, and physics still applies.

Fuel cells are neat tech, but there's a lot in the way of wide scale adoption.

[enfield]

Yeah, anyone with a bit of electricity can separate hydrogen and oxygen from water. Do it with solar and it would practically be free, although a small amount. http://m.wikihow.com/Make-Oxygen-and-Hydrogen-from-Water-Using-Electrolysis

Here is part of a paragraph from the Grolier Encyclopedia:

Electrolysis is an energy-consuming process. To obtain 2 grams of hydrogen and 16 grams of oxygen by the electrolysis of 18 grams of water, the equivalent of 68,300 calories of electrical energy must be supplied. This same quantity of energy, homwever, can then be recovered from the hydrogen and oxygen, either suddenly in an explosion or slowly if they are brought together in a FUEL CELL.

Two grams of Hydrogen is only 1/227 pound, so the electrical energy actually required to produce a pound of Hydrogen is therefore 68,300 * 227 or 15,500,000 calories of electrical energy! This can be converted into 18,000 watt-hours or 18 kWh. As noted below, the existing technologies to create Hydrogen by electrolysis are all around 20% efficient, which means that around 100 kWh of electricity is used up to produce a single pound of Hydrogen gas. Note that you need to use up 100 kWh of electricity to have 18 kWh of electricity or energy available in one pound of hydrogen gas!

If a house's present 15-cent per kiloWatt-hour of electricity is used, that (100 kWh) therefore would require at least $15 of house electricity to be used up to create that single pound of hydrogen gas! We will see below that one pound of hydrogen gas contains just under half of the chemical energy of a single gallon of gasoline, so, even if everything else was perfect, more than $30 of modern house electricity would be required to simply PRODUCE an equivalent amount of Hydrogen gas to one gallon of gasoline! And then that gas would have to be ferociously compressed and all the rest.

Notice that we have implicitly referred to the Conservation of Energy here. We had to USE 100 kWh of electricity to MAKE the pound of Hydrogen, but it can only RELEASE the 18 kWh of energy which it can contain. This is a "detail" regarding Hydrogen that no one ever seems willing to mention! We just saw that even if we were only going to try to compete with house electricity, We would have to use $15 of electricity to make the Hydrogen which could replace only 18 kWh or $3 worth of electricity. Would anyone seriously think that sort of thinking would represent any possible SAVINGS?

[enfield]

DT Edited February 21, 2015 by enfield

[GlockSpock]

Here is part of a paragraph from the Grolier Encyclopedia:

Electrolysis is an energy-consuming process. To obtain 2 grams of hydrogen and 16 grams of oxygen by the electrolysis of 18 grams of water, the equivalent of 68,300 calories of electrical energy must be supplied. This same quantity of energy, homwever, can then be recovered from the hydrogen and oxygen, either suddenly in an explosion or slowly if they are brought together in a FUEL CELL.

Two grams of Hydrogen is only 1/227 pound, so the electrical energy actually required to produce a pound of Hydrogen is therefore 68,300 * 227 or 15,500,000 calories of electrical energy! This can be converted into 18,000 watt-hours or 18 kWh. As noted below, the existing technologies to create Hydrogen by electrolysis are all around 20% efficient, which means that around 100 kWh of electricity is used up to produce a single pound of Hydrogen gas. Note that you need to use up 100 kWh of electricity to have 18 kWh of electricity or energy available in one pound of hydrogen gas!

If a house's present 15-cent per kiloWatt-hour of electricity is used, that (100 kWh) therefore would require at least $15 of house electricity to be used up to create that single pound of hydrogen gas! We will see below that one pound of hydrogen gas contains just under half of the chemical energy of a single gallon of gasoline, so, even if everything else was perfect, more than $30 of modern house electricity would be required to simply PRODUCE an equivalent amount of Hydrogen gas to one gallon of gasoline! And then that gas would have to be ferociously compressed and all the rest.

Notice that we have implicitly referred to the Conservation of Energy here. We had to USE 100 kWh of electricity to MAKE the pound of Hydrogen, but it can only RELEASE the 18 kWh of energy which it can contain. This is a "detail" regarding Hydrogen that no one ever seems willing to mention! We just saw that even if we were only going to try to compete with house electricity, We would have to use $15 of electricity to make the Hydrogen which could replace only 18 kWh or $3 worth of electricity. Would anyone seriously think that sort of thinking would represent any possible SAVINGS?

Interesting. I knew the law of conservation of energy would apply but I did not realize that separating hydrogen from oxygen was so inefficient. Thanks!

[zybysco]

Electrolysis is the least efficient. It is more efficient at much higher temperature. You can get it from natural gas, ammonia, etc.

[zybysco]

A kg of hydrogen is coming down in price. Already close to a gallon of gasoline. And it has three times the energy than a gallon of gas.

[tnguy]

I like the idea of fuel cells but this seems like the wrong application. I already have a battery pack with a li-ion battery that is charged by USB or the large solar panel on the side. I also like the picture in the kickstarter page where the fuel cell is being used to charge a phone in the car and is sitting literally two inches from the cigarette lighter (for which adapters can be had for $1 off of ebay).

 

And aren't the band going to have something to say about the name?

Edited February 21, 2015 by tnguy

[zybysco]

Soldier are testing fuel cells in Afghanistan. Mostly for radio equipment. They save a lot of weight and it lasts longer.