Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half
Posted on January 9, 2008 Comments (1)
Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half
Here’s how it works: One MEA stack is coupled to a high- temperature heat source (such as solar heat concentrated by mirrors), and the other to a low-temperature heat sink (ambient air). The low-temperature stack acts as the compressor stage while the high-temperature stack functions as the power stage. Once the cycle is started by the electrical jolt, the resulting pressure differential produces voltage across each of the MEA stacks. The higher voltage at the high-temperature stack forces the low-temperature stack to pump hydrogen from low pressure to high pressure, maintaining the pressure differential. Meanwhile hydrogen passing through the high-temperature stack generates power.
“It’s like a conventional heat engine,” explains Paul Werbos, program director at the National Science Foundation, which has provided funding for JTEC. “It still uses temperature differences to create pressure gradients. Only instead of using those pressure gradients to move an axle or wheel, he’s using them to force ions through a membrane. It’s a totally new way of generating electricity from heat.”
Very cool and yet another example of the benefits of educated engineers. The positive externalities are large for engineering education.
Related: Engineering Innovation in Manufacturing and the Economy – S&P 500 CEOs, Again Engineering Graduates Lead – Engineering the Future Economy – 2007 Solar Decathlon of Homes – The Future is Engineering – Engine on a Chip, the Future Battery
One Response to “Super Soaker Inventor Aims to Cut Solar Costs in Half”
Leave a Reply
September 21st, 2008 @ 5:10 pm
“He is our youngest fellow in science that we’ve ever had,” Moessner said. “He is really spectacular. “His project will really make a difference in advancing the technology of solar cells. You would never know he’s 12 looking at the quality of his work…