Mark Goldes <m...@aesopenergy.com> wrote:
> It also must reject heat as a waste product. > > Efficiency will undoubtedly be below 50% and may be much less. AESOP > Energy piston engines are not Carnot limited. > That is impossible. Let us assume this means the device converts nearly all heat to mechanical power, and nearly all of that power is converted to electricity. In other words, is a highly efficient device. In the early stages of cold fusion development, there is no need for high efficiency. There is no economic justification for highly efficient generation, because the heat from cold fusion costs nothing. It makes more sense to concentrate on making the generators inexpensive and reliable. Conventional nuclear fission power reactor generators are inefficient, because the heat from fission reactions is extremely cheap. They are designed to be reliable and to last for a long time. They trade off efficiency to achieve this. Cold fusion generators will also be designed to make this trade-off. Eventually, after cold fusion is established, there will be market niches that demand somewhat more efficient mechanical conversion, such as aerospace engines and other mobile applications. This will probably not be needed for automobiles, ships or railroad locomotives. Conventional automobiles have only 20% efficient engines, this can probably be achieved with conventional steam turbine or Stirling engines. - Jed
