future of lithium ion technology

[oldschool]

Originally posted by Makosuke
That said, I work in fuel cells, and it's going to be at least a few more years before they're practical on a mass-market scale--they're expensive, have short lifespans, and a few other issues.

Do you work for one of the Fuel Cell research companies? Like ballard power?

 

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by Frohickey
Ethanol can still be made though, from fermenting plant starches and distillation.

The problem with biomass fuels is that growing plants, unless you're clearcutting forests without fertilizing (which has its own soil-based limitations) for the most part takes a lot of energy; a lot for fossil-fuel powered farm equipment, and even more into inorganic fertilizers. Without cheap fossil fuel, growing large voulmes of crops becomes more expensive and more difficult. And if you're growing your fuel, you can't be using it up to harvest and transport the same crop. On a small scale it can work, but I'd be interested in seeing a study that made realistic assumptions about biomass production that showed it could work on a scale anywhere near the amount of energy we currently use.

On the level of a laptop, where size is far more important than cost and efficiency, it's quite possible, though.

And I work for a small research lab, the Schatz Energy Research Center.

 

[Frohickey]

Good point about large scale biomass/fuel production.

But I still see it as possible.
Lets see... oxen to grow grapes/barley, these would eat grain.
Trees for fuel for distillation.
Yeast for fermentation
Horses or waterwheels to crush the grapes/barley.

 

[Makosuke]

Originally posted by Frohickey
Good point about large scale biomass/fuel production.

But I still see it as possible.
Lets see... oxen to grow grapes/barley, these would eat grain.
Trees for fuel for distillation.
Yeast for fermentation
Horses or waterwheels to crush the grapes/barley.

That would (and who knows, may someday actually) work just fine on a small scale. Unfortunately, if you look at the volume of ethanol it would take to run a transportation system even remotely resembling the one in the US, I don't think you're going to be able to do it with beasts of labor and the available arable land the world has to work with.

 

[Frohickey]

hehe...
i thought we were talking about powering laptops and cellphones...

A G5 laptop would probably need plutonium.