Jones,
I don't believe it enough to buy the paper. What frequency range of RF works & is the effect limited to RF? Maybe
microwave works better. Do they have a physical theory for how it works?
In general RF generators are not very energy efficient.
Ron
--On Wednesday, March 12, 2008 10:00 AM -0700 Jones Beene <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
One further thought wrt the point that: The usefulness of the Kanzius technique
will depend on how efficient the
process is, when comparing P-in (elec) to P-out (thermal). One report which
seems to have been accurate several
weeks ago pegged the initial efficiency (before the famous Dr. Roy got involved
in the project) at about 40% which is
only about one-half of what you get with DC electrolysis.
OK- there is a way that this invention could be boot-strapped into a useful
hybrid for grid independence, even with a
lower efficiency than DC electrolysis- or especially for dual use in third
world countries for combined power and
pure water.
Even if the process is less efficient than normal electrolysis, if it can
bypass the need for expensive silicon solar
arrays, then it can be made more attractive. Commercial solar cells are about
15% or less efficient on average at
midday, but the cost of even the cheapest is prohibitive for most uses when ROI
is taken into account. The rumors of
cheaper solar arrays are reminiscent of the rumors of hot fusion energy - IOW:
they are rumor only, and with a final
"installed cost" which is always going to be unrelated (usually a multiple of
4-8 times greater than the prior
promises and press releases).
Any significant advance in the net efficiency of going from free solar energy
to a storable fuel like hydrogen, while
bypassing solar cells, would be of great value; and one possible advance is
this: instead of first converting light
into DC electricity - the alternative and better way is to "shift" the photons
directly into RF. But is that feasible?
The process is known generically as photonic "down-shifting" of frequency. It
has been demonstrated to some degree
already, with sunlight, so it is feasible but has not received anywhere near
the attention it deserves.
Downshifting of solar (mixed light frequencies) would be easier to pull-off,
and more efficient if many resultant
wavelengths in the RF output can be tolerated. It can be more efficient when
they are relatively closer (i.e.
sunlight vis-a-vis the target wl), but that is not the case when attempting to
go from light all the way down to RF
in the low MHz range. If the Kanzius technique were to work with microwaves of
mixed frequency, possibly in a
super-radiance regime, then it would be easier to adapt to solar input. This is
doable!
For instance, a quick googling turns up: Anovel photonic frequency
down-shifting technique formillimeter-wave-band
radio-over-fiber (RoF) systems, which has been proposed andverified by
simulation. [that does not mean that it works
in practice however].
The frequency shifting is based on subcarriermodulation (SCM). "An optical
carrier with a subcarrier is injected
intothe frequency shifter consisting of a Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM)
orelectroabsorption modulator (EAM) driven by
a radio frequencysinusoidal signal. The frequency-shifted optical carrier with
afrequency-shifted subcarrier is,
thus, generated by SCM modulation."
That sounds more complicate than it really is- but is illustrative of the
distinct possibility that there exists now
a number of routes to go directly from sunlight to mixed RF to hydrogen, but
without using silicon (in order to go to
DC first).
Another related way is the "solar pumped maser." This idea has received
attention for use in space, but there are
ways to do it in smaller devices.
The result could be as simple as using a mirrored trough to focus a sunlight
onto a plasma tube, which is pumped by
the solar input and which can be tuned by using the very same kind of
subcarrier modulation, which has been proposed
for RoF usage. Again, this would work best at microwave frequencies.
The key to this may be in adapting DPSR (Dicke Preparata Super-Radiance)
techniques to solar input.
Of course, there is an almost daily report of other ways to go from solar to
hydrogen- and ANY of them IMHO are
probably superior to silicon, in terms of "bang-for-the-buck".
Personally, I find it painful to see so much of the R&D budget going into
silicon solar cells- simply because of the
similarity of manufacturing to that which is used in IC (integrated circuits).
Part of the problem there is that VC
(venture capital) is geared to this industry and has no problem with the
cross-over, even if it is unwise on the
bottom line.
... all of which, to this observer, and when looking at all the variables
including the most important of all: the
*storability* of a manufacture fuel, seems to indicate that the silicon solar
cell industry is an even bigger drain
of limited financial resources than is hot fusion.
Jones
