Reply To: Space Flight

[vansig]

dennisp wrote: How hard would it be to make decaborane from elemental boron? What kinds of materials could we make on a small scale, given cheap power? How small and cheap could we make a fuel production plant? Etc.

scanning wikipedia, i find this sequence of reactions…

Boron trifluoride, BF3, “is manufactured by the reaction of boron oxides with hydrogen fluoride:
B2O3 + 6 HF → 2 BF3 + 3 H2O”

Diborane, B2H6, “is made industrially by the reduction of BF3, and is the starting point for preparing the higher boranes.”

Decaborane “is commonly synthesized via the pyrolysis of smaller boron hydride clusters. For example, heating B2H6 or B5H9 gives decaborane, with loss of H2.”

however, i’m not absolutely certain that the fluorine is a necessary intermediary.

With cheap power, any process that consumes lots of electricity will benefit. among them are recycling and refrigeration. Any process that needs x-rays will benefit, as well.

Electrolysis becomes more economical, leading to cheaper chemicals: aluminum, hydrogen, chlorine, etc.

A chemicals/fuel production plant will benefit from cogeneration of both heat and electricity. However the plant will not necessarily become smaller in size, since its bulk is chemical storage and reaction chambers. But cheap energy would allow such operations to scale up.