About some interesting near future power supplies

As a continuation of the topics covered in the topic and discussion of "Charging the battery in 10 seconds"

The news described in this article is certainly good, but already about a year ago Toshiba reported on batteries, which charge up to 70..80% of capacity in 2 minutes. A little later someone else reported on similar parameters. However, the problem is that everyone seems to have one, the battery overheats when charging, its efficiency is not perfect at all.
Your phone may fry a bit at these charge rates. And of course, the size of the charge itself, with the high power required for a quick charge, they will increase significantly and exceed the size of even a laptop charge.
Most likely they will come to some kind of compromise charge time.
In general, the situation in the power supply market is clearly stagnating. After Li-polymer batteries, nothing worthy of attention has been introduced, and it has been a long time. In spite of many promising solutions, all manufacturers seem to be waiting, which one or two solutions will prove to be effective, and after that they will rush to build factories for these technologies.

Personally, the prototypes on alcohol and glucose syrup and several other developments seem very interesting to me.
Sony recently showed such things at exhibitions in a fairly wide range.

“Alcohol” charging, judging by the photo, would have rated its power at 8..12 W, which is quite acceptable.


But these are glucose-powered batteries, in particular at the exhibition Coca-Cola was poured into them.

Well, already quite exotic, "a system consisting simultaneously of miniature fuel cells and Li-Ion batteries, capable of independently choosing the right way to power the device at every moment."

It is promised that a cell phone with such a system is able to provide you with the possibility of intensive daily phone calls for a whole week, and at the same time without recharging.
There were more specific figures, it is said that 10 ml of methanol will provide 14 hours of viewing video on a portable device with a screen of about 3 inches. I think it is very impressive.
')
If someone follows the link , they will find there interesting acoustic systems powered by methanol, they look extraordinary.

From well-scalable ideas, I want to mention the idea of ​​getting electricity from sound, vibration and deformation waves.
Already, it is being worked out in relation to power supply for ultra-efficient autonomous sensors, as well as for powerful industrial power plants.
In the latter case, the material will be laid under the asphalt, to a depth of 3 cm in heavily loaded highways. In Israel, preparations are currently underway for the construction of an experimental section of a highway of 750 meters. Unfortunately, with our culture of road works, and the characteristics of climate (frequent drops from plus to minus in winter), this probably doesn’t shine for us soon. If in such a canvas the hole is not quickly repaired, then soon you will receive a large-scale short circuit.
Although all this is more than realistic, in particular in the world there is already a disco building powered by the energy of "dancing little people." The project is implemented and pays off. If I am not mistaken, it is located in Holland.
And while you are dancing, you have such a cell phone or an even more unusual concept based on the same principle in your pocket from your movement.


After all, the disco is dark, and your cell with a solar battery will not be charged here.


Although it is such already for some time mass-produced in China, seemingly for the domestic market.

Well, with such a device , you can even charge the laptop at all while you go somewhere.
That would be good for tourists. Forever this GPS just "swallows" the batteries, you will not save enough for the route.



On the other hand, with a person in motion, energy can be taken anywhere. The two laboratories independently developed two different types of fabric suitable for the manufacture of clothing and capable of generating electricity on a person. Isn't that fantastic?
Fabric developed by the French converts human energy into energy, more precisely the temperature difference between the human body and the outdoor temperature. And the higher it is, the more effective the fabric. But, “the soldier sleeps, the service goes.” Let's say you are sleeping in such a sleeping bag, and the electronics are recharging.
The fabric developed in the American laboratory is based on the piezoelectric effect, as I understand it. Those. it will work if you move and the clothes on you are deformed. So, it can be assumed that knee-deep and elbow pads will be made from this fabric, shoulder pads are different. In general zones of intense deformation. If it is not very expensive to manufacture, and I was engaged in vacuum spraying and I think that the fabric will be inexpensive, then it is possible that the entire lining, for example, will be made from it.
Both types of fabric were produced using popular nano-technologies, and in this case, mastered and used for a long time. Just set the correct task and got an interesting product.

I also wanted to remind of the very soon expected to enter the market, bags and briefcases with built-in solar batteries and apparently accumulative batteries, too.
Which were recently, right there on Habré, are described in a report from a recent exhibition CEBIT-2009.


A trend is planned for such a lot of compact autonomous energy sources, with the advantage of using free energy of any type.

And who really needs a “sea” of energy in a compact version, this is where a real revolution has emerged .

We are talking about an ultra-compact nuclear reactor capable of serving a town of 20,000 cottages, and at the same time it does not require any maintenance, only recharging fuel once every 5 years.



At the same time, it is the safest type of reactor that was just invented.
The probability of a nuclear explosion is excluded by the very principle of its operation, since at temperatures above 432 degrees Celsius, he himself begins to “slow down” himself. Such self-regulation is due to the specific chemistry of the process in the nuclear fuel of the reactor. And this is the most reliable "automation". There is nothing to break, and by the way, there is nothing to hack too :)
And there is no escape of weapons-grade plutonium. What is also a plus for our troubled times.
By the way, the idea has been waiting in the wings since 1953. And the project, which was unsuccessful and “not shot” in the literal and figurative sense, spawned it. For details here
In this regard, I would like to recall the saying: “A negative result is also a result”. And in this context, what else!
How graceful was the effect that prevented the realization of the nuclear charge variant that was being developed at that time was used to create a safe and super-compact nuclear reactor?

To my deep regret, this idea is now significantly superior to the domestic project, which one St. Petersburg research institute is trying to make commercially profitable. We are talking about small floating nuclear power plants , based on power plants from icebreakers and nuclear submarines.

They are already 10 years old as planned to be sold to Arab countries and in general around the world for desalination, generation of heat or electricity.
I somehow talked to the developers, sincerely happy for them. But time has passed, and I haven’t heard anything about sales yet.
Perhaps there are some political difficulties. It is unlikely that it came up against the technique or money.

The same option was planned to be done in the form of a land modular power station, and I do not remember exactly, but it seems that somewhere in Russia such was mounted.
The advantage of our stations is that they have already been partially embodied in the metal.

On the other hand, Americans are seriously saying that they will begin supplying their systems in 3 years.
This is a very serious application. And serious security advantages, including those against the terrorist threat, and land savings.

About various aspects and safety systems of modern NPPs can be briefly read here.

Under a normal nuclear power plant in Russia, a “safety zone” is allocated about 15 km. Often there is simply no such space.
And then the reactor is buried in the ground at a decent depth, and upward only 2 pipes with coolant out.
Well, maybe some more sensors of some kind. And at the top just stands a small module with a steam turbine and an electric generator. They see it literally.


It is possible that a small cooling tower will be, although for example in Europe, according to my data, not cooling towers are used for cooling the steam, but they lay pipes in the fields around the nuclear power plant.
Due to the fact that the land is warm, it is possible to shoot more crops per year, and the yield itself from this is higher.
Our energetics openly laugh at this: “Who will allow us to plow under the walls of a nuclear power plant, but what if there terrorists hide in a tractor :))”
A pity, the idea is beautiful, and there is no such “wandering” ferry and disrupting the landscape of cooling towers.
If someone else didn’t appreciate the idea, then I’m so simple, for example, I’ll give the 3D of the most modern Russian nuclear reactor VVER-640 itself , developed by St. Petersburg AEP.

I didn’t put a person next to me, firstly it’s dangerous, and secondly, not everyone could see him anyway. The reactor compartment is huge compared to the innovative prototype of Americans.
And this is only a reactor, it still needs so much! Only the automation of control and security occupies a whole multistory building. The building of the RBMK power unit (well, the very Chernobyl type of reactor), for example, has more than 2000 rooms. This maze really needs a map to go somewhere, even if you work on the unit yourself. Modern projects, though more compact, are still huge. Even when adjusted for more power. And add here the power lines?

It looks like this in modern projects.


I think I convincingly showed the difference. Even with the amendment that our reactor is still 25 times more powerful, but at the same time it is 1000 times more complicated. And maybe much more.

There are many more interesting things that I haven’t talked about here, starting with Google’s floating data centers , powered by wave energy. I speculated about the fact that I myself find it interesting and promising.

PS
Actually, we live simply in the ocean of energy, it is quite appropriate to speak about technogenic "energy" pollution. I am sure that in 10.30 years or earlier, we will use free and renewable energy very widely. You can learn something interesting and unexpected here.