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Unusual energy storage

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Wed, 2010-02-10 10:47

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Unusual energy storage

Thanks to the Wigner effect moderator graphite rods get "charged up" by atoms displaced by neutrons to the wrong place in the lattice. This can store up to 2.7 kJ/g, a pretty decent amount of energy (lithium batteries have 0.46-0.72). It can be released by heating the graphite to 250 degrees C. In current reactors this is just a problem, but in EP this might be used for high performance energy storage. With nanotechnology the graphite can likely be turned into something even more energetic (and a bigger fire hazard). TNT has an energy density of 4.61 kJ/g. TNT can be replaced with octanitrocubane with energy 8.5 kJ/g or octaazacubane at 22 kJ/g - these are likely molecules that requires nanotech to be made. A lot of the design would likely be in stabilizing nasty compounds like these. To power plasma rifles I would go for nuclear isomer batteries. Tantalum 180m has 41,340 kJ/g that can (assuming EP tech!) be released as gamma rays. Or maybe it can be used as a "gamma grenade" irradiating everything within a few hundred meters. To get it you need to either separate the isomer from natural tantalum, or charge it up using a nuclear reactor. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density

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Wed, 2010-02-10 12:18

TBRMInsanity TBRMInsanity's picture

Re: Unusual energy storage

I may be missing something here, are you trying to make a bomb or a power plant. As a bomb you would be better off using a mater - anti-mater reaction as you get the best bang for your buck. As a power plant I fail to see how you turn the energy in the graphite into usable energy for devices. If it could be done, I agree with you that you could "charge up" the graphite as your protecting yourself from neutron radiation (I'm not sure how much neutron radiation in in space but maybe there is more near places like Jupiter (go Jovians!)) and then use the "filled" graphite plates in some form of power plant to run everything.

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Jovian Motto: Your mind is original. Preserve it. Your body is a temple. Maintain it. Immortality is an illusion. Forget it.

Wed, 2010-02-10 14:32

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Unusual energy storage

TBRMInsanity wrote:
I may be missing something here, are you trying to make a bomb or a power plant. As a bomb you would be better off using a mater - anti-mater reaction as you get the best bang for your buck. As a power plant I fail to see how you turn the energy in the graphite into usable energy for devices.

No, I am talking about energy storage. Generating or collecting energy is often surprisingly easy, actually storing it in a portable form that can release it when needed at the rate needed, that is hard. This is why a lot of renewable energy sources today are not quite ready for prime time: they produce energy at the wrong time and place, and we do not have efficient energy storage to fix that. The graphite battery could simply be an heat engine or Peltier element; with some handwaving it might work almost like a fuel cell. It could also be used for effective heat production: small pellets are inserted into a device that "burns" them, releasing heat (the used pellets can then be re-charged in a nearby reactor). When you make a bomb you use the materials you have access to. I doubt Barsoomian saboteurs can get their manipulators on antimatter, but Wigner graphite might actually be accessible. Antimatter weapons also tend to show up on scans (they have to contain some pretty powerful magnetic fields to contain the charge; just imagine how a MRI scanner would react), but you could very likely sneak graphite past it (it is just carbon after all!). Making those cubane explosives would take a seriously hacked cornucopia machine and lots of electric power, they would be detectable due to nitrogen content even with old-fashioned airport scanners and they would require air to burn, but you would get a bigger bang per gram. And so on.

Quote:
If it could be done, I agree with you that you could "charge up" the graphite as your protecting yourself from neutron radiation (I'm not sure how much neutron radiation in in space but maybe there is more near places like Jupiter (go Jovians!)) and then use the "filled" graphite plates in some form of power plant to run everything.

Sadly (?) there isn't that much neutron radiation in space. The solar wind has a lot of protons, but I doubt you can get the same flux as in an everyday nuclear reactor. Still, the jovian radiation belts have plenty of energetic particles. I see a few military research projects coming up...

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Wed, 2010-02-10 15:44

TBRMInsanity TBRMInsanity's picture

Re: Unusual energy storage

I've done some quick research into Neutron Radiation (thank you wikipedia) and it seems that Mercury would be a more appropriate location for the creation of graphite batteries. These batteries could then be sold by a hypercorp to customers in the outer system (via the Titans) as a energy source where solar energy is not as effective. While these graphite batteries may be more of a portable power plant then a battery that is fine as the hypercorps still control the best source of Neutron Radiation in the Solar System and the best way to create these batteries. That being said a Neutron Star would be a much better source of neutron radiation and the control of a Pandora Gate with a stable link to a Neutron Star system would be vital in the creation of graphite batteries (and give yet another reason to control Pandora Gates).

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Jovian Motto: Your mind is original. Preserve it. Your body is a temple. Maintain it. Immortality is an illusion. Forget it.

Wed, 2010-04-21 11:56

Dry Observer Dry Observer's picture

Re: Unusual energy storage

How about a superconductive coil with a charge cycling it endlessly until released? In deep space (especially in the Kuiper Belt) you would already be at or approaching the necessary temperatures, so upkeep would be relatively simple. I believe coils of niobium-tin wire have already been used to create such batteries as long ago as the early 90s. Brinkers in particular would be able to store power from their remote fusion reactors so that, even in the case of multiple power failures or the hostile targeting of their energy sources, tremendous accessible energy reserves would remain.

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Wed, 2010-04-21 14:13

Arenamontanus Arenamontanus's picture

Re: Unusual energy storage

Yes, superconductor coils are nice for energy storage. In particular, you can get your energy back very rapidly and you can get maximum power output directly. This actually suggests that superconductor "ammo" can be used in some beam weapons if it can be stored at ambient temperatures. Coils also might make very good power reserves for the Brinker killsat and gun emplacements. One of the problems in using these coils on planets is that they need to be pretty large (order of 160 kilometers for a 1 GWh storage), but in space this might be perfectly OK. Another alternative energy storage is flywheels. Current flywheels achieve 100-130 Wh/kg, so to store a 1 GWh you need 10,000 ton flywheel. With superstrong nanomaterials holding them together they can likely become a factor of 10 smaller. Current flywheels have problems with that the bearings and air cause friction: in space this can be minimized. Both the superconducting coil and the flywheel have the gaming-relevant property of blowing up if damaged: the superconductor reaches critical current somewhere and becomes a non-superconductor, vaporising explosively and sending out some EMP. The flywheel spins apart in an explosion of nanocrystal shrapnel. Whee!

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Thu, 2010-04-22 01:50

Dry Observer Dry Observer's picture

Re: Unusual energy storage

The potential risks of storing vast reserves of energy from, say, a few dozen large fusion reactors [i]are[/i] significant. But there are some practical reasons for Brinkers to be out where they are, and not all of them revolve around increased autonomy. The unclaimed resources of the Kuiper Belt combined with the vast heat sink of interstellar space open up a lot of manufacturing posibilities for aspiring creators of every stripe... so long as they're willing to provide their own sources of power. Oh, autonomy -- or at least privacy -- plays a part for most of these operations. With no one out there to be impacted or to observe, you can mass produce ships, robots, cornucopia machines, nanoswarms/microswarms, seed AIs and computronium -- whatever. So whether you're a genuine mad (super)genius, an anarchist commune or a hypercorp black ops project, you can do whatever you like. Then again, you are out in the deep dark where the Titans (or their playthings) lurk. So when the shadows pounce, it's good to assume that the primal terrors coming for you aren't just a trick of your mind. Good luck, lonely prospector. =)

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