[JesterX]

The vacuum chamber is not actually part of the circuit as I understand it. The actual plasma paths are from each of the cathodes to the anode, which conducts all of the plasma’s current during the axial phase rundown. The anode itself is actually shaped more like a circular Tee flange. I know it looks misleading in the gallery 🙂

Aeronaut, thanks for the response, but what I was asking was more about how the tee flange anode (as you described) manages to stay insulated from the rest of the chamber. Does the pyrex pass completely through the flange, if so how is it sealed to maintain vacuum?

[JesterX]

It’s true, biofuels will never completely replace petroleum, most experts agree that the transition to alternative transportation will not occur with a single medium. It seems likely that a variety of technologies will be part of the petroleum replacement process. Biofuels, hybrids, hydrogen fuel cells, electrics and more will all compete for majority of the road. The place for biofuels in the future will likely be commercial and industrial vehicles. Aircraft are an excellent example, Virgin Fuels and Boeing are already working in partnership to develop jet engines that will burn biofuel derived from algae. As for the difficulties involved in growing algae, many companies (including my own) have developed methods for growing in an open environment with temperature control that uses naturally produced carbon-free energy. In my company’s system we grow a hardy strain that can withstand temperature changes of 30F from the optimal growing temp. and can be harvested every twelve hours. The algae is constantly fed carbon and has a 92% consumption rate, we are currently working on ways to absorb the other 8%. Oil extracted from the algae contains only 60-80% of the carbon consumed during it’s lifetime and the fuel produced from it can only emit that amount, making algae fuel carbon negative. We are currently exploring the mechanics of a large scale operation and whether we are able to maintain a negative carbon footprint by using renewable energy to meet the demands of the operation. I think that an alternative energy source such as focus fusion will be required to make electrical vehicles the road majority. As much as 52% of the US is still powered by coal accounting for 40% of our total carbon output, with numbers like this it doesn’t make since to switch to an electrically powered vehicle fleet. With any luck we will see focus fusion or some other variety of fusion become the mainstream of power generation in our lifetimes and the opportunities will abound.

[JesterX]

Making Biofuels from biomass is now of highest priority in the biofuels research community because we all admit the food crops can only replace a tiny fraction of oil usage while biomass could replace as much as 30% with moderate estimates and higher.

While biomass is a promising alternative feedstock, a 30% displacement puts it lower on the list than other frontiers such as algae. A NREL study conducted from 1978-1985 concluded that 15 million sq miles of algae farming could displace the entire US fuel demand (on road vehicles). Currently, US agriculture uses over 400 million sq miles of land, 270% of the land requirement for algae. The numbers have changed since 1985, however algae based feedstocks still offer the highest oil displacement. Due to rapid growth rates and high lipid content algae presents the highest per-acre oil yield of any know agriculture based feedstock and algae can be used for both ethanol and biodiesel.

[JesterX]

I just read of a project where a rectenna is to be used to collect energy from orbital solar farms. It’s a variation of what’s being discussed here but I thought others might enjoy the technology. the article can be found here.

[JesterX]

prosario_2000 wrote:

About the emissions of vehicles, if you read the end of my article you will see that I’m proposing Focus Fusion along electric cars as solution to this problem.

There are a number of factors that negate this statement. Number one, even thought the technology exists (and has since the 1830’s), electric cars hold zero market share, this means that nearly all vehicles world wide would need to be replaced. The economics of this are simply unrealistic, someone would have to construct over 600 million electric cars and sell them, the manufacturing alone would take years. Not to mention, how many people can afford to scrap their current vehicle and purchase a new one? The best case scenario for a complete transition to electric or even hybrid cars presents at least a fifty year time-line. So should we just continue to burn fossil fuels during this transition? Biofuels offer augmentation to current technology for a scenario in which the world cannot sit back and wait for new technologies to save it. We are past the point where dreaming of the ultimate solution is feasible, we must take immediate action to reduce the impact of technologies already in place or by the time the transition to alternate technologies is made it may be too late to insure our planet’s survival.

I disagree with you regarding cattle, since the prices of both milk and meat are increasing significantly, at least here. Recently there have been a series of struggles with government for milk companies to be able to increase their prices (milk prices are regulated in Puerto Rico). Maybe in the future this thing will be alleviated, but prices of food are increasing all over the world. Recently, 60 Minutes (if I remember correctly) showed how it is seriously affecting the poor

[JesterX]

You are correct that the creation of biofuels from food sources is economically unsound. However industry leaders in biofuel production are not blind to this fact. Both ethanol and biodiesel producers are currently researching alternative feedstocks that will eliminate competition with food sources. In fact many of these such as algae and jathtopha stand to provide an economic boost to deprived countries where land availability and climate conditions are prime. In the case of corn based ethanol production limiting feed availability for cattle you are entirely incorrect, ethanol produces a byproduct known as distillers grains or DDG’s which are in turn sold as cattle feed at a lower price than corn which has actually created a surplus in feed supply. Also, algae grown for fuel production produces yet another byproduct sold as feed. While focus fusion presents great promise for production of power it will not reduce emissions from vehicles that burn fossil fuels and the internal combustion engine will not disappear overnight. Biofuels are a fairly new technology and like most they have flaws that are being addressed. I urge you to check out http://www.ethanol.org or http://www.biodiesel.org for the latest developments in alternative feedstock research, I think that your concerns with biofuels will be alleviated.

[JesterX]

“On a simlar vain I can also suggest http://www.stargate.uk.net/dynamics.txt”

An interesting collection of other peoples work but I fail to see the relevance as a unified theory. While considerably less complex than string theory, the theory that I posted a link to still offers a complex mathematical explanation for the interaction of particles and forces.

[JesterX]

What is the ratio of boron to hydrogen in the fuel mixture? It’s mentioned here that decaborane will most likely be used, has the possibility of using residual heat from the reactor’s cooling system to heat the decaborane to the 100C required to produce the gas been explored? It seems that this could be another way to reduce energy requirements.

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