FESTO : inspired by nature

Who killed the electric car ?

"Who killed the electric car" is a 2006 (documentary) movie starring Mel Gibson, Tom Hanks and many others

What is the future for batteries : beta-voltaic ?

Do you know Tritium ? It is an isotope of hydrogen (H rated 3), ie, an atom with neutrons more or less in the nucleus - two more neutrons in this case.

The particularity of tritium is that it is a radioisotope, a word which is not afraid to say it is radioactive. Oh, nothing to do with uranium-235, do not worry. It degrades slowly by emitting beta-minus decay radiation - in other words, it emits electrons.

Moreover these electrons can recover in semiconductors. Result ? This makes an electric current.

Here is beta-voltaic system. 

principle of Tritium battery

It's been a while since we worked on this : the principle was discovered fifty years ago, and they are already feeding of satellites as per their long-term life, it has been used also for cardiac stimulators. Because the strength of this power is that his life is closely linked to the degradation of the selected element : electricity production is continuous, decreasing gradually until complete degradation.

from http://www.betavoltaic.co.uk

It is reasonable to expect that a beta-voltaic battery tritium produces electricity for thirty years.

Today, following research of the U.S. Air Force was announced in the coming years beta-voltaic cells for cell phones or laptops.

Some will worry about bringing sources radiating into their lives. Hopefully, tritium is kind enough not to issue any other radiation than beta emission, which are not harmful and easily controllable (single aluminum foil easily stop them, as well as human skin). Besides, you may have some already in your environment : tritium is commonly used in the manufacture of luminescent watch (it replaced radium for this use, which emitted more gamma carcinogen radiation).

Another advantage : once emptied, the battery would contain no more radioactive element and would be inert and harmless : the degradation of tritium produces helium 3, perfectly stable. In fact, it would even be much cleaner than the current batteries containing heavy metals.

Then, is betavoltaic battery the panacea for computers, without being to be charged until 2050 ?

> not quite sure: the production of tritium is not without issues.
The size of the tritium atom (remember that hydrogen is the smallest of all atoms) makes it very difficult to store: it has a tendency to penetrate most materials. Also, emission is divided by two every decaying period (12.32 years), which means the battery must be over-sized at the beginning of its life in order to be still usable at its end of life.

Still, this line of research appears very promising, the main issue being miniaturizing sufficiently the gaz container to fit in a laptop.


For instance, porous silicium and 3D shaped silicium will help to overgo these limitations

Nanowatt batteries, lasting 20 years. Credit from http://www.citylabs.net

More about betavoltaic :
http://peswiki.com/index.php/PowerPedia:BetaVoltaic
http://www.livescience.com/technology/091209-nuclear-batteries.html

Climate : what is all about this ???

Everyone can "see", through the media or even at home !, the climate seems to change.

Hum... Before quickly conclude the whole story is about human activity alone, please consider the following :

The Skeptics Handbook II

Direct Carbon Fuel Cells (DCFC) : the ultimate biomass conversion technology ?

Did you say converting carbon directly into electricity without "burning" it ???

Yes ! this is now possible

Moreover :

• the process presents an overall efficiency of 70% which is a very good performance compared to traditional burning+heat plants (35% maximum according the Carnot theoretical thermodynamics limitation)
• environment friendly as it is CO2 capture-ready, and reduces emission by 50% prior to sequestration (the total quantity of CO2 emission is half for the same quantity of energy produced,  the sequestration process is easier, is more secure and is also cheaper to achieve)
• no water required all along the process (no steam, no cleaning, etc.)

Operations began in 2006 at Stanford University. Tests are continuing on various grades of coal, wheat and rice straw, corn stover and wood.

diagram of the fuel cell process

Made of a core of ceramic tubes, the system operates at 900°C and emit only a pure stream of CO2, ready to be captured without the capital and energy cost of separation from nitrogen. Ash, sulfur, lead, mercury and other solids would not be released to the atmosphere but would be carried to landfills or re-cycled.

In the production of distributed base-load electricity, coal or biomass is fed into the base of the system. The carbon in the coal or biomass is gasified without water into carbon monoxide by the re-circulating carbon dioxide. That is: C+CO2= 2(CO). The CO then moves up the inside of the ceramic tubes. At a temperature of 900 degrees Centigrade the oxygen in the air on the outside of the cell walls is under pressure to cross the barrier and oxidize the CO on the other side. It cannot cross as an oxygen molecule but only as an oxygen ion. So the O2 picks up four electrons from the utility grid, crosses the barrier, bonds with the CO and sheds the electrons, creating the electric current. That reaction is 2(CO)+O2ion= 2(CO2)+4e.

That's simpler and twice as efficient as a 20th century coal power plant.

The system is compact and modular, groups of directcarbon Fuel Cell systems, each with the footprint of a forty-foot cargo container, can be grouped for generation of electricity in the megawatt range.

Source : directcarbon

A fuel cell is an electrochemical device that efficiently converts a fuel's chemical energy directly to electrical energy without burning the fuel. However, instead of using gaseous fuels, as is typically done, DCFCs use aggregates of extremely fine (10- to 1,000-nanometer-diameter) carbon particles distributed in a mixture of molten lithium, sodium, Yttria-stabilized zirconia or potassium carbonate at a temperature of 600 to 850°C. The overall cell reaction is carbon and oxygen (from ambient air) forming carbon dioxide and electricity

The reaction yields can reach 80% of the carbon–oxygen combustion energy as electricity, yet no burning of the carbon takes place. DCFCs for stationary applications provide up to 1 kilowatt of power per square meter of cell surface area — a rate sufficiently high for practical applications. Some developers are designing DCFCs for mobile applications that can deliver energy densities in the range of 1,000–2,000 Wh/kg, far higher than any advanced battery.

Source : Mongabay


Conclusion : this is a very promising technology !