Holy Grail fuel?

[botsapper]

A fuel that would cut our dependence on foreign oil? Avoid harmful emissions? Do we need the Volt or Leaf? and still afford to drive our SUVs!
Cella Energy has been developing advanced materials science, taking high energy materials & creating nano capsules using nanostructuring techniques called coaxial electrospraying. The microbead synthetic fuel has no carbon emissions, it is hydrogen-based using complex hydrides, that could be used in current internal combustion engines!
The 'repackaged' hydrogen has specific energy density of 14MJ/Kg, but could be kept at ambient temps and could be kept safely. Existing fueling systems and infrastructure are kept intact & minimally modified.The Rutherford Appleton Lab, working w/ University College London & Oxford, has maintained Manahattan Project-like secrecy tight on their secret program...

...and the best news, the additive could bring down gasoline fuel costs to $1.50 per gallon!!!

Scrambling for more information about Cella Energy (UK) and their synthetic fuel...

UK Energy Firm Claims its Hydrogen-Nanobead-Based Synthetic Gas Can Burn in Your Car with Zero Emissions | Popular Science

[RobertSmalls]

Miracle fuels are scams.

Repackaged hydrogen? The energy has to come from somewhere: either fossil fuels like natural gas, or from electricity which is predominantly coal-based. It reminds me of the fiasco that is the hydrogen fuel cell, which entered the national dialog not on their technical merits, but due to the backing of an idiot President who landed on an aircraft carrier and wanted to send people to Mars.

If this one can be blended with gasoline like ethanol, then it has the potential to be interesting, but I'll believe it when I read about it in a scientific journal or in a report from the Dept of Energy.

[jamesqf]

Besides, some of us don't WANT to drive SUVs, or share the road with the idiots who drive most of them.

[BHarvey]

Originally Posted by jamesqf

Besides, some of us don't WANT to drive SUVs, or share the road with the idiots who drive most of them.

Amen!

[pounsfos]

Gasoline has an energy density of about 45 megajoules per kilogram (MJ/kg)
Coal has energy content of 15 to 19 KJ/gram
lpg is 24.9mj per litre
diesel is a little higher than petrol in energy density

pure ethanol is about 26.8 mj/kg


heres some more
File:Energy density.svg - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The 'repackaged' hydrogen has specific energy density of 14MJ/Kg,

14mj/kg os pbviously very low, your better off running pure ethanol or anything but that.

p.s i quickly googled these numbers so correct me if i am wrong or not factoring in something.

[botsapper]

The 'repackaged' hydrogen has specific energy density of 14MJ/Kg,
14mj/kg is obviously very low, your better off running pure ethanol or anything but that.

Missed a digit. Liquid hydrogen = 147MJ/K.
UK Cella Energy develops hydrogen based fuel in microbeads that can lead to US$1.50 per gallon fuel compatible with existing cars

Their initial schematics show a nano-sized polystrene carrier/membrane around a hydride core, the nano-spheroids has liquid-like properties, thus could be delivered by existing fueling pumps. Inside the vehicle, the hydrogen is liberated from 'solid' fuel by an external heat source. An accumulator regulates the pressures going into an ICE motor or delivered to a fuel cell of an EV powerplant.

My concern of nano-technologies is the unknown biological risks of unintended consequences. Breathing/ingestion/infiltration of highly caustic nanoparticles would be very dangerous. Just the 'inert' asbestos particulates & carbon nanotubes, serious organ/lung diseases are their serious biological consequences. Nanotechnology oversight agencies does not even have a clear safety data research standards.

I'm not a Luddite, but the nano-frontier is wide open but hopefully not a cliff.

[gone-ot]

...uh, does that 'Holy Grail Fuel' have to be stored in the 'Holy Grail' or can a common gas-can be used (wink,wink)?

[botsapper]

Still, many perils on the legendary quest...

..."We'll call it a draw".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QdxC-lNOFJo

[some_other_dave]

Originally Posted by botsapper

Their initial schematics show a nano-sized polystrene carrier/membrane around a hydride core...

So we're to burn plastics inside our engine? And what is the hydride of? Sodium or something equally "fun"? I wonder how much energy it takes to make the "carrier/membrane", even if you decide the hydride is "free"...

-soD

[botsapper]

Originally Posted by some_other_dave

So we're to burn plastics inside our engine? And what is the hydride of? Sodium or something equally "fun"? I wonder how much energy it takes to make the "carrier/membrane", even if you decide the hydride is "free"...

-soD

A proposed system schematic shows a 'material' pump brings the fuel to a separate heating tank, 'hot cell', (that probably liquifies the styrene) and liberates the hydrogen. The H gas then goes to a buffer tank, then regulated to the vehicle's ICE/fuel cell. The 'husks' are then separated (centrifugal?) and pumped to a collector tank. Disposal/reclamation systems need to be developed.
My immediate thought of the initial heat separation of the nano-beads before driving off reminds of me of the starting procedures of the old steam-engined cars.

First pre-heat, then boil, creating steam = heating beads, before you get any locomotion.

...cold weather markets may have to wait a little bit longer.

Aerospace/UAV technologies very interested with .

Glasgow University and EADS developing conductive storage for solid hydrogen fuel project