--- Terry Blanton wrote: > I'm not so sure what is so great about it other than you can get hydrogen on demand. The process is either endothermic and/or consumptive of resources. There are not efficiency figures that I can find.
Best I can tell, the inventor was supplying (or inventing) EDM fluids for some years, and has patents in that field. He probably discovered that more hydrogen was being evolved in certain situations than desireable for EDM, and then decided to try to exploit that situation for generating hydrogen, as the enegy crisis has evolved. I am not surprised that the efficiency numbers are not included in the patent (since there is no good reason to do so), but certainly this efficiency figure would be most important to the manufacturer who makes fertilizer and needs hydrogen by the ton... That demo, from the original reference, with the H2 generator --> FC driving the fan was cute - but essentially meaningless even if it works for 300-400 hours at a time- and since there was no apparent vent for O2, then the iron colloid must be consumed in the process... which would stongly limit the ultimate usefulness, if the oxide could not be recycled in a secondary system... (and - for what would amount to a combined Faradaic efficiency which was significantly better than elctrolysis alone) ... which ... that efficiency being "doable" is the gist of the rumor which is circulating... But speaking of Texas rumor, what happened to the 'Bettery' startup company EEStor ? http://www.thestar.com/NASApp/cs/ContentServer?pagename=thestar/Layout/Article_Type1&c=Article&cid=1141599010468&call_pageid=970599109774&col=Columnist971715454851 IOW the AirGen system - as a battery substitute- if it could be "recharged at night" then that is an advantage over Lithium-ion, since it is 2-8 times lighter per kilowatt, even with the required fuelcell. But the cost of the fuel cell, and the need for platinum/palladium is still the looming problem. October platinum is $1,258 while palladium is $322 an ounce. But when Pd demand increases slightly (as it has done on occassion) it can easily top $1000. A long-lived one kW fuel cell requires about a tenth-ounce of either but the problem is that : increased-demand --> exponentially higher metal prices. Try pricing a one kW fuelcell. Jones
