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The Thermionic Revolution - Using Ambient Heat Energy
Posted on Monday, June 23, 2008 @ 22:55:14 UTC by vlad
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 will do to fuel based motors what the Industrial Revolution did to the horse.
What is possible: A simple way has been found that promises to make cheap abundant electricity from the heat in air
On 19 June 07, Prof G Mahan, a Thermionics expert and currently a visiting Professor at Penn State University wrote:
"It is well known that thermionic power generators would work well at room temperature if one could find a stable material with a low work function……."
If power can be generated at room temperature:
•oil will become worthless
•the price of electricity will tumble
•cars will run on heat from the air
•ships will run on heat from sea water
• Fertilizer could be made by a hybrid of solar and the new generator, to make Syngas and recombine with nitrogen on farm;
• As the process produces large amount of cooling, limitless quantities of water could be condensed from the air for both agriculture and human consumption.
• The price of food would plummet.
• First and second world living-standards would skyrocket.
• Malaria would be eradicated by universal air conditioning.
The Challenge:
Work function is the force holding free electrons to a surface.
As with gravity, the higher it is, the harder it is to escape.
Here is a list of work functions & the Amps of electrons escaping at room temp. (see http://www.thermionicrevolution.com/ table)
• Escaping electrons make a metal positively charged.
• If the metal is connected to the Earth, a supply of free electrons, it will draw in electrons to regain neutral charge
•The force on the electrons is equal to work function. • If the force (emf) acts via a Faraday motor & dynamo we can get high power output
A hundred years of searching has failed to deliver an economical work function.
Three important points:
• A disk rotating very rapidly causes the free electrons inside the disk to push against the outside electrons thus inducing millivolts at the outer surface
• Sharp points (10:1 height to base) multiply this effect by 1000
• At room temperature the average free electron in a metal travels at 100,000 meters/sec. The most energetic of them travel at up to 1,000,000 meters/sec.
The solution:
• By combining rotation and points, we can produce an effective 0.15ev work function.
• The drawing below shows how these effects can be incorporated in a design.
• It shows (in cross section) a red disk spinning on a 240v a.c dynamo shaft.
• Above the disk is a ring magnet (yellow) which is connected to magnetic iron (grey).
• At the outer edge of the disk there is an array of sharp points.
• The disk gets replacement electrons via a very sharp (for low loss) secondary needle array (top of orange).
• The dynamo (blue) works initially as a motor to get the disk up to design speed, then it is a dynamo.
• As electrons are emitted from the outer surface, a current flows through the disk.
• That current passes the magnets & induces a torque in the disk which then turns the dynamo.
• Electrons are replaced at the same rate they were emitted from the disk via the extra sharp secondary needle array (top of orange).
• This also transfers some heat.
• Heat flows to the disk from the upper and lower case.
• At a work function of 0.15ev, we do work of 2.4E-20Joules per emitted electron.
• At an edge speed of 300m/s replacement electrons use 4.1E-26 Joules to get up to edge speed.
• The net work available for torque (output) is therefore 2.39E-20J.
• Allowing for losses, we estimate output at 3Kw. for a150cm diameter disk.
...
More: http://www.thermionicrevolution.com/
(thx KeelyNetNews)
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Re: The Thermionic Revolution - Using Ambient Heat Energy (Score: 1)
by malc on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 @ 00:50:45 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://web.ukonline.co.uk/mripley | | This is not the most difficult nor expensive thing to engineer. All you need is the tools and materials. Even a modest car enthusiast would have the facilities. So how long before somebody builds a proof of concept ? |
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Re: The Thermionic Revolution - Using Ambient Heat Energy (Score: 1)
by ElectroDynaCat on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 @ 11:04:02 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | Sorry but I have a lot of issues with the physics of this proposal. First is the issue of work functions,the other is the figure for electron velocities in conductors.
The originators haven't confronted the thermodynamic issue, for a heat engine to operate, it has to have a heat source and a sink. Unless the device is smaller than the zero point/Ambient thermal density threshold, there can be no transfer of energy between the phases.
But first of all I have the same issue as always, if this thing works, where is it? |
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Thermionic converter inventor will release more information (Score: 1)
by vlad on Tuesday, June 24, 2008 @ 21:48:45 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) http://www.zpenergy.com | Hi zpenergy,
My name is Philip Hardcastle of Australia, the inventor of the thermionic device you have put on your site.
I
am preparing a much more detailed article for Nexus magazine and if you
want I can also provide you with more detail or if preferred some
opportunity for your readers to get answers.
I will be
addressing the always thorny issue of the second law of TD and expect
to make a very significant attempt to shift the thinking in respect of
thermionics.
As a general observance of comments coming in I
must advise that the production of a high speed rotor with micro points
is not trivial nor cheap.
For a prototype we have been quoted $200,000.
Obviously
in mass production this would become a few thousands but I warn your
readers not to spend any money until we have more information.
I
also wish to advise that the device shown is a very basic design and
that much higher power to weight units will be disclosed shortly.
We
are currently have some limited discussions with government about
getting assistance and remain willing to talk with any government about
giving free of charge specific rights to mass produce without royalty.
As already stated for domestic home use we will never seek to make any profit.
Philip Hardcastle
-------------------------
[Vlad]: Dear Philip,
Thank you for your comments. Myself and all ZPEnergy readers are looking forward to your Nexus article.
We welcome your offer to provide us with more details on this technology and especially with "an opportunity" to get some questions answered. As you can see in the comment above, ElectroDynaCat has already posted such questions for you.
I would strongly suggest to keep the dialog public so we can all learn something (instead of going to private messaging). Of course, we do not expect any proprietary information about this technology to be posted on a public forum.
From your comment, I understand you do not have a "proof of concept" prototype yet. It is nothing wrong to look far ahead, to the mass production stage, but I would say this is the last thing you should worry about now. I am aware how expensive building such prototypes can be. You may want to take a look at Mark Tomion's ( StarDrive Engineering [www.stardrivedevice.com]) proposed technology, who also uses thermionics in his Electrodynamic Field Generator (EDF) device. Please contact me through the "Feedback" for more information.
Again, thank you and we're looking forward to more interesting info from you. We all hope you're on the right track!
Vlad
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Re: The Thermionic Revolution - Using Ambient Heat Energy (Score: 1)
by TechsArcana on Monday, August 11, 2008 @ 16:36:55 UTC
(User Info | Send a Message) | Can someone point to an online article or a recently completed experiment (or even a decent gedanken) which shows that a spinning disk should have a smaller work function at it's edge?
In my invesitgations, I can't find any such evidence. The Work Function contains no velocity or acceleration units.
And if acceleration did affect thermionic work functions, wouldn't certain electronics operate subtly differently in orbit than on the ground (or indeed, shouldn't they operate differently if upside down, than right-side up?) I would think the literature would then be chock-full of mundane scholarly articles about various means of correcting (or the problems faced by not correcting) for any supposed acceleration-induced lessening of some material's work function.
Bottom line: I don't think work function will be lowered by acceleration, regardless of the intensity. This should be a simple thing to test. Simply attach a standard work-function testing cell (or some piece of electronics that relies on thermionic emission) to a rotating frame, and try it out in both directions (inward, and outward facing) If the thermionic revolution boosters are correct, there should be a clear, measurable difference between the two configurations. |
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