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Comment by VBprogrammer | Hacker News Reader

If that is 40% efficient as in 40% of the theoretical energy input comes out as electricity then it's quite incredible but I find that hard to believe. It would put it in the same range as diesel engines.

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The 40% figure is supposed to be "wire-to-wire", but they do list that as the "target efficiency" which suggests it may be somewhat aspirational. It presumably doesn't include the energy needed to extract and refine the oil into whatever kind of burnable fuel you are using, nor the energy necessary to extract and then blend in the sodium additive.

And at the bottom they seem to indicate they are still in the "proving feasibility" stage.

I read this all as: "this is a POC we have, and if we can get it to 40% efficiency than it might make sense (otherwise who cares, just use a conventional generator)"

What does "wire to wire" even mean? The input isn't a wire! (Do they mean they think they can synthesize fuel and burn it at 40% overall efficiency? If so, that's pretty good.)

If you electrolyse water with electricity into h2 and o2 then you have tour first wire.

When you reform the electrons via this engine and the photovoltaic cell you have your second wire.

and better than small diesels / turbines / internal combustion engines, at closer to 20%

500 MW GE turbines claim 64% efficiency, and one can use the wasted heat for district heating. If we have to burn something then using these turbines seems to be the best option, running 2-3 electric cars for the emissions of one. And probably 3000 e-bikes. Shouldn't you compete in this range of efficiency?

There's only so much district heating that is needed. And mostly only in the winter. You'd actually need more energy for cooling in the summer when nobody wants to heat their place. District heating is a nice creative solution for waste heat. But there's a limit to how much of it you can use and how practical it is to use it. Mostly it's still waste heat that's going to be wasted (blasted straight into the atmosphere and space).

And we don't have to burn stuff. Which is why coal and gas powered electricity generation is a bit under pressure in most markets. There are cheaper and better ways to get energy now.

eventually we would hope to get there, but, we are trying to have an edge somewhere that isn't the literal most refined and large capex part of the market first. if we can have a 10x edge

This would be a great addition to the website. Also, talk about applications, even show a comparison chart vs existing solutions

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