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Panopticon wrote:
It was on 60 Minutes this past Sunday.
Not another 'fuel cell'. Device was developed initially to provide oxygen for astronauts travelling to Mars.
No trips to Mars, inventor found new use.
- Doesn't 'burn' fuel.
- Waste heat can be captured & used.
- Main components are ceramic plates made from beach sand.
- No expensive metals used or required.
But hey, if someone here as a better, working device; let's see it :thumbsup:
Umm... Actually, yeah.. that describes a fuel cell all right...
It may pan out to be great in a LOT of applications...
But I'm not getting my hopes up until some units have been in commercial operation for a couple years.
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I did not hear in that CBS 60 Minutes story just what all that beach sand does and they did not discuss residual products from the process but they did show a couple of commercial installations that seemed to be working just fine.
(edit - had the wrong show)
after reading more ... these things run at high temperatures. Wonder what a city full of these boxes would do to ambient temperatures. There is talk of selling excess power to the utility companies. But if "everybody" is getting their power from these boxes, the utility companies would presumably not want it. What are they going to do with it if all the customers are using fuel cell produced power?
