Comment by detourdog
I read their statement of 40% efficiency would be compared to the currently available photovoltaics were generally 20% efficiency is normal.
I read their statement of 40% efficiency would be compared to the currently available photovoltaics were generally 20% efficiency is normal.
I agree that 40% "wire-to-wire" seems wild. But if it was 40% nat gas to wire that'd be quite nice considering how simple such a generator would be, and it might be more efficient (perhaps significantly more) than traditional internal combustion generators. I.e., if you ignore the green aspects of this it sounds quite nice. Though you have to supply sodium. Hmmm.
the 40% efficiency is a claim about how much energy contained in the fuel can be converted into electricity*. It would make the most sense to compare this against either combustion engines or hydrogen fuel cells. Compared to those 40% is not breaking any records but could be extremely useful given the size, flexibility, weight, power output, etc.
Basically big if true, but this thing's 40% and photovoltaics' 20% aren't comparable efficiency numbers.
* They say wire to wire, IDK exactly what that means, but if it includes the losses from green hydrogen production then it seems like pretty wild efficiency. This doesn't line up with the numbers though, as H2 with 1250Wh/L * 0.4 = 500 Wh/L claimed density.