THE FUTURE - Inventions, Innovations, Discoveries, Exciting Stuff

[Pendragon]

In Reply To: henrietta's post @ Feb 21 2020, 08:44 AM

Let us hope Australia is able to commercialize it.

Past history suggests we invent it and the Yanks make the money out of it!!

[henrietta]

Below is an article from today's Australian.

It would be nice if they can get the system to work on an appropriate scale and cost.

Cheers
J


Australian scientists close to developing holy grail of clean energy

Australian scientists are tantalisingly close to developing the holy grail of clean energy, using high-powered lasers to fuse boron and hydrogen atoms together to ­generate electricity without any emissions or toxic waste.

A team of scientists at the University of NSW is developing the ­hydrogen-boron fusion technol­ogy, which is said to hold the promise of limitless, cheap baseload electricity with virtually no carbon ­dioxide emissions and zero radioactive waste. The only waste product is helium.

The pioneer of the technology, Heinrich Hora, said: “The clean and absolutely safe reactor can be placed within densely populated areas, with no possibility of a ­catastrophic meltdown such as that which has been seen with ­nuclear fission reactors.” Boron is cheap and naturally abundant, with sufficient known reserves to power the world for thousands of years.


Patents for the technology have been granted in the US, Japan and China to UNSW spin-out company HB11 Energy.

The research, which was conceived by Emeritus Professor Hora, has been under way for more than four decades.

It is a genuine moonshot on the pathway to a low-emissions world. If successful, it will follow UNSW’s other success in transformative energy technology with solar photovoltaics.

The announcement by UNSW of progress on its fusion research coincides with a new focus by the Morrison government on technology to combat climate change. The Australian revealed this week that the govern­ment would adopt a technology investment target as the best way to meet the net zero emissions goal countries signed up to in the Paris Agreement.

Professor Hora said Scott Morrison’s comments and a business group target of $22bn a year for investment in new technology represented “a new direction” in tackling climate change.

The government is planning to release a technology road map that will include advances in carbon­ capture and storage and other emissions technologies. Work is also progressing on a coal-to-hydrogen project based on Victoria’s brown coal reserves, with delivery of a hydrogen refin­ing plant to AGL’s Loy Yang facility in the Latrobe Valley.

The plant will be used as part of a pilot phase of the Hydrogen Energy Supply Chain project, a world first to establish the feasibility of supplying clean hydrogen from export from Victoria.


Fusion research has attracted billions of dollars in funding around the world. Many are claiming to be on the verge of a breakthrough similar to that of the UNSW team. However, ­others believe the technology is 30 years away.

Professor Hora said advances in laser technology had been the key to realising his theories of how to produce fusion energy without the massive amounts of heat needed by other approaches.

The laser technology’s developers, Donna Strickland and Gerard Mourou, were awarded the Nobel Prize for Physics in 2018.

With patents in place, HB11 will seek funding for final testing and development of a prototype. If all goes well, developers expect a pilot plant could be built within five years. The company will seek $1m for preliminary testing over 12 months. A further $5m would be needed over two years for international research collabor­ations to achieve experimental proof of concept. A pilot fusion electricity generator would require­ a further $80m.

“After investigating a laser-boron fusion approach for over four decades at UNSW, I am thrilled that this pioneering approach has now received patents in three countries,” Professor Hora said.

“These granted patents ­represent the eve of HB11 Energy’s seed-stage fundraising campaign that will establish ­Australia’s first commercial fusion company, and the world’s only approach focused on the safe hydrogen – boron reaction using lasers.”

Professor Hora said his react­or design was simple: a largely empty metal sphere, where a modestly sized HB11 fuel pellet is held in the centre, with apertures for the two lasers. One laser establishes the magnetic containment field for the plasma and the second triggers the “avalanche” fusion chain reaction.

A statement by UNSW said the alpha particles generated by the reaction would create an electrical flow that could be channelled almost directly into an existing power grid with no need for a heat exchanger or steam turbine­ generator.

HB11 Energy managing director Warren McKenzie said the approach could be the only way to achieve very low carbon emissions by 2050.

“As we aren’t trying to heat fuels to impossibly high temperatures, we are sidestepping all of the scientific challenges that have held fusion energy back for more than half a century,” Dr McKenzie said.

GRAHAM LLOYDENVIRONMENT EDITOR
Graham Lloyd is a fearless reporter of all sides of the environment debate. A former night editor, chief editorial writer and deputy business editor with The Australian, Graham has held senior positions nationa... Read more

[nipper]

Peloton charges a prohibitively expensive $US2245 for its bicycles and $US4295 for its treadmills along with a monthly subscription fee of $39 to connect with fellow riders/runners across the globe in live, streamed workout classes

https://www.onepeloton.com/

one father’s viral email response to his daughter’s request for a Peloton stationary bicycle noted: “It is a ridiculous amount of money for such a basic concept as riding a stationary bike. You can ride a bike you own for as long as you want and cut the inevitable boredom factor by listening to podcasts or watching TV or clips of waves on sand”. He added: “I would implore you not to waste precious after-tax income on this latest attempt to encourage social strivers to show that they live at a more rarefied level than the proletariat.”

- just because it's possible, doesn't mean it's sensible

[joules mm1]

Russian Billionaire Pledges to Spend $100 Million Searching for Alien Life

July 20, 2015 — 11:40 PM AEST

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/201...seek-alien-life

versus

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/art...ity-unique.html

[henrietta]

Here's as good as anywhere for this news.


http://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-31434030


Maybe Australia can fire up all of its idle desalination plants , hire a few tankers, and make a killing !!!

Cheers

J

[joules mm1]

cars: when Noddy said look mum, no hands



https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...p;v=CqSDWoAhvLU

[joules mm1]

highways of the future

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=playe...p;v=qlTA3rnpgzU

solar

[joules mm1]

Indoor farming may be taking root
May 17th 2014
excerpt

Moving plants indoors allows them to be coddled in other ways, too.
Water can be recycled continuously, and sensors can detect which nutrients
are missing and provide them in small, accurate bursts.

http://www.economist.com/news/science-and-...elightfantastic

[joules mm1]

your natural foods are your first medicine and your pills your alternative medicine

great video for anyone into their second half century

Super Juice Me video link
http://www.thedarewall.com/tv/watch/super-juice-me-2014

Eat, Fast and Live Longer video link
http://vimeo.com/54089463

The Truth About Exercise video link
http://vimeo.com/51836895

the first video has a couple of pop-ups that come with it, simply exit those

the second and third videos are worth watching consecutively

[joules mm1]

a new type of battery, using carbon, less heat and longer use

tube video