Dave,
In terms of kg of hydrogen per kW of energy, the rule of thumb is a gain of 200:1 (ratio) if the hydrogen goes to an average redundancy level that Mills apparently believes is correct. This would be on the low side - if some of that f/H then converts via a nuclear pathway. Thus, without redundancy compare to the 33 kWhr/kg or 33 watt-hr/gm as energy density for regular hydrogen combustion, that becomes about 6,600 kWhr/kg for f/H. Thus 1 kWhr requires ~ .15 g with f/H and no secondary nuclear contribution. For 4000 hrs (half a year) for a continuous megawatt of thermal output (supposedly the big blue box) or 4 gigawatt-hrs - that would consume over 600 kg. of hydrogen in half a year. This would be derived from 2,400 kg of methane. The energy density by weight of methane is published as 14 kWh/kg so if you merely burned the methane instead of removing the hydrogen for the ECat you would face as much as a 500:1 deficit over the ECat. Apparently a HotCat which may be more efficient - at a kW output with only 5 grams of hydrogen available in a sealed capsule could not run for over 30 hours unless it was better than the 200:1. Caveat - this is a Saturday evening back of the envelope calculation :-) and given that Robin is already Sunday morning, I was hoping he would oblige. From: David Roberson I was hoping that you or someone else would have calculated the amount of hydrogen required to put out a reasonable amount of power for the mandatory 1/2 year.
