[rowante]

Boron A Better Energy Carrier

Fascinating (and rigorous) look at boron as an energy carrier. The author, Graham Cowan, assumes widespread nuclear or solar power to produce the boron fuel. The main thrust of the argument is that boron is better than hydrogen.

[rerere]

boron is better than hydrogen.

Bump on The Vanadium Redox Battery

http://www.ceic.unsw.edu.au/centers/vrb/

[BabyPeanut]

Have another Bump (of fresh battery)

http://www.vrbpower.com/

[The_Virginian]

alriiight!

So has vandium resolved the storage issue?

How common is it, can it be mass marketed w/o the price going through da/ roof?

Where will the energy needed to "refill/recharge" these batteries come from?

I actualy like this technology. Sounds better on the surface than fossil fuel(ed), Platinum grubbing, and wasteful hydrogen.

But, I still wonder if it's just "a better mousetrap" of batteries, and nothing more....

[BabyPeanut]

I actualy like this technology. Sounds better on the surface than fossil fuel(ed), Platinum grubbing, and wasteful hydrogen.

But, I still wonder if it's just "a better mousetrap" of batteries, and nothing more....

See the other thread I started for some of your questions.

With solar, scales well but what to do about night or cloudy days? Batteries go hand and hand with solar. But batteries improve any and all things electric since they can be used to smooth out peak load. Your local or home batteries draw power when the grid is more idle and then provide power when the load is high.

[big_rc]

I like the idea although this quote from the article really concerns me.

Unlike magnesium, boron is a somewhat rare element. In recent years its mining cost has been roughly one order of magnitude more than the retail cost of the energy it can carry. If it made only one trip, boron to deliver a dollar's worth of energy would cost roughly ten dollars.

What happens to the price when we start to make a few million boron fueled cars a year?

[BabyPeanut]

I like the idea although this quote from the article really concerns me.

Unlike magnesium, boron is a somewhat rare element. In recent years its mining cost has been roughly one order of magnitude more than the retail cost of the energy it can carry. If it made only one trip, boron to deliver a dollar's worth of energy would cost roughly ten dollars.

What happens to the price when we start to make a few million boron fueled cars a year?

But the concept of an "energy carrier" is that you recycle it. In hydrogen's case it goes back to water which you let the atmosphere reposition. In boron's case you decombust it.

http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/boron_blast ... ecombusted

That and the other section that claims it's as plentiful as dirt.

http://www.eagle.ca/~gcowan/boron_blast ... Ubiquitous