...Hmm, surprised that Fred or Horace haven't thought of this one... (or maybe they have, or else they already appreciate why it wouldn't work)
Proton conductors are of keen interest to many inventor-types, and for any number of quasi-logical reasons relating to the intersection of low density, mobility through a solid, and the minimum possible mass transfer per unit of +charge by a wide margin. There are a few (weak) reasons to suspect that mechanical mass transfer of charge is not as rigorously conservative as pure-EMF regimes ... at least in my dreams <G>
Of course, fuel cells and many kinds of LENR depend on proton conductivity... plus there is the obvious fact that a flow of protons is probably the cheapest way to move a lot of positive charge (on paper at least). Let's see - a pound per second of protons recirculating across a dielectric membrane is something like 50 million amps worth of current, no?
Anyway, it dawned on me just now that of all proton conductors, the cheapest and most under-utilized ... for this particular kind of wild-eyed scheme is as close as the kitchen ... water ice.
Yup, water ice is both a good conductor of protons - and a dielectric- and cheaper than cheap (esp. compared to Pd). Is that (ice) a combination of properties made in inventor's heaven?
Not really... unless you have a ready supply of very strong (graphite or comparable) fiber as well. That is because moving a lot of protons across a proton conductor might require a centrifuge and/or both a centrifuge plus a cheap source of ionization (which is transparent to the ice).
One could use a retaining hoop of filament wound carbon fiber to provide the necessary strength for spinning a thin layer of ice at several hundred thousand G's ...or is that <G's>...and it wouldn't hurt to have a cheap source of ionization in there somewhere (thorium or 40K, not to mention perhaps utilizing "spent fuel' for the sequestered version) ...
I think one day, we will come to realize that so-called 'spent fuel' (from reactors) is far more valuable than the 'un-spent' variety... and there's probably a good pun in there somewhere to go with the twisted way of looking at the situation.
...the iceman returneth
Jones
