progressive hard drive failure?

Using applications, configuring, problems
Message
Author
User avatar
Flash
Official Dog Handler
Posts: 13071
Joined: Wed 04 May 2005, 16:04
Location: Arizona USA

#21 Post by Flash »

Sage wrote:...Apart from Arizona and E Calif., our Arabian friends have a monopoly on sunshine, too!...
You forget Australia!

Anyway, even if it only could do a very unimpressive 100 watts per square meter at noon, a square kilometer solar collector would give 100 MW peak power. A solar array 100 kilometers on a side, which would hardly be noticed in the vastness of the American southwest, would generate 1000 GW of peak power.

I've tried to find the "efficiency" of splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen by electrolysis. The best answer I found is that it is very efficient. That is, if the reverse of the process - combining the hydrogen and oxygen back into water in a fuel cell, for instance - were 100 percent efficient, you'd get back most of the electrical energy used to make the hydrogen. As an energy storage cycle, electrolysis combined with fuel cells is about as efficient overall as any other way of storing energy. The problem is the well-known difficulties of storing hydrogen.

I read somewhere that methanol actually has more hydrogen per unit volume than liquid hydrogen. It is obviously much more practical to store. The missing link is how to make methanol, or any other easily stored compound of hydrogen, from sunlight and water vapor.

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#22 Post by Sage »

Barstow!
Ethanol is going to be the fuel of the future. There are new enzymatic fermentation techniques which are more efficient. The SE US States are awash with bagass in Autumn - anything that grows is fermentable. Problem with ethanol is the C-C bond. We are looking for a new and different catalyst.
Efficiency in energy generation and conversion is full of misconceptions. Many textbooks are wrong. The Second Law is inviolate.
How could I possibly forget Oz?!

Takilla
Posts: 53
Joined: Fri 28 Oct 2005, 22:19
Location: Lakeside and Phoenix, Arizona

#23 Post by Takilla »

from failing hard drives to bio energy conversion, you puppy people are most imaginative and flexable. But thanks anyway for you generous help.

Sage
Posts: 5536
Joined: Tue 04 Oct 2005, 08:34
Location: GB

#24 Post by Sage »

Bicycle driven generators were used to power clandestine communications sets in WWII, esp. as a man on a bike in France attracted absolutely no attention. It may be possible to use dead HDs to build a wheel motor?
Another attraction of ethanol as a fuel should immediately become apparent! As I used to explain to my students, when the hardware fails, it's still possible to be happy.....

Post Reply