Contents
1.0 Energy for everything
on Earth
1.0 Energy for everything
on Earth
Ever since man discovered the use
for electricity his energy needs have increased ten-fold every year. We utilize
over 580 million Terajoules, which translates to over 13,865 tons of oil. The
usage of energy by source is staggering. We utilize this energy for everything
for our society. We utilize energy for growing food, power all the powerplants
to heat our homes, and drive our manufacturing industry. A large portion of our
fuel goes to the transportation industry for jet air travel. We utilize our
cars for commuting to our jobs, traveling to vacation destinations, and
transportation of good. Trains in our country utilize diesel fuel currently to
transport mainly goods, and people across the country and in all countries in
the world.
As you can see, we are utilizing
over 36% of all energy derived from oil, it won’t last forever. We need to find
a solution to this issue. We are making
strides in the use of solar energy and wind power to augment our increase need
for energy production. As new materials technologies with the use of Graphene,
Borosphene, which are nanotechnology materials, that exist in a 2-dimenstional
matrix. In other words, this material derived from graphite and Boron are only
1 atom in thickness. The applications of these materials are astounding for
applications in the realm of semi-conductors and energy generation
applications.
We are producing high amounts of
greenhouse gas emission from burning fossil fuels for energy. The health issues
associated with burning gasoline in cars, jet fuel in airplanes, and diesel in
cars and trucks has had a profound effect on the climate, and affected our
entire ecosystem.
|
Energy source |
Billion kWh |
Share of total |
|
Fossil fuels (total) |
2,504 |
60.80% |
|
Natural gas |
1,575 |
38.30% |
|
Coal |
899 |
21.80% |
|
Petroleum (total) |
19 |
0.50% |
Table 1
Figure 2
1.1
Nuclear Materials
Most
countries in the world recycle their nuclear waste from their reactors. The
United States has stopped nuclear reprocessing of its nuclear waste for the
past twenty years. Radioactive materials that are used in power plants utilize
uranium, plutonium, and other elements. The efficiency of nuclear power is such
that a 1-inch-long pellet of enriched plutonium can generate the equivalent of
one ton of coal.
Nuclear
power plants today produce over 20% of our energy needs, even though most of
them have been shutdown due to older unstable design that utilize water to be
kept cool, instead of liquid sodium and other less hazardous materials. When
these plants burn the nuclear materials, they create low-level radioactive
waste which is disposed. High level radioactive waste has to be stored in large
drums, until they can be reprocessed into new control rods or similar use in a
reactor. There is over 2,000 metric tons of radioactive material generated
every year.
Even
with the use of Sodium-cooled Fast Reactors, and Molten Salt Reactors to
recycle nuclear waste to generate electricity there is too much nuclear waste
being produced today
There
is a project called Waste Isolation Pilot Project (WIPP) with stone and
concrete to contain these radioactive materials since it has a half-life of at
least 10,000 years. Half-life is a term referring to the radioactive decay of
materials. It is self-evident that what do we do with this ever-increasing
amount of used fuel that is stored in over 70 sites in 34 U.S. States.
Recently
Oak Ridge Tennessee designed and manufactured a new set of buildings and
facilities to reprocess nuclear rods and waste from nuclear power planet.
1.2 Re-Cycling Nuclear Materials
To
recycle nuclear materials into materials that can be used for energy generation
it has to go through a process of purification and recycle of non-irradiate
enriched uranium. The usage of nitric acid and aluminum in a series of step
whereby people use radiation proof glove boxes to bring in the round cans
filled with nuclear materials and through a series of steps in many operations
produce bricks of nuclear waste that can once again be used.
1.3 Types of Batteries
We
utilize batteries of every type in our cellphones, computers, tablets, toys,
cars, trucks, airplanes, and spacecraft. We have a wide variety of other
batteries Lead-Acid – Car Batteries, Nickel- Cadmium Batteries, Lithium
Batteries.
There
are a wide range of batteries as indicated above, but the issue is that
automotive batteries and single-use batteries and wasteful and difficult to
recycle. They occupy millions of tons of our waste every year in landfills.
We
need to solve this problem with billions of batteries disposed of leaking
hazardous chemicals into our environment, and generating billions for LG Chem,
Byd, Panasonic. Even re-chargeable batteries lose their charge after a few
years and have to be disposed of the same as single use batteries. The crisis
grows now with millions of people buying electric cars with hundreds of
batteries in them costing thousands of dollars to replace after 8-10 years,
costing the owner $10,000-$20,000 to replace. Recently, a person who bought a
used 2014 Tesla for $14,000 didn’t realize that when they discovered after a
few months the cost to replace the battery pack would more than the entire cost
of the car.
|
Battery Type |
Characteristics |
|
Lithium/Soluble Cathode |
High energy density, good performance, wide temp range |
|
Lithium/Solid Cathode |
High energy density, low temp performance, long shelf life |
|
Lithium/Solid Electrolyte |
Low power, extremely long shelf life |
Table 2
|
Company |
Battery Types |
Headquarters* |
Founded* |
Estimated Annual Sales* |
|
Lithium,
Alkaline |
Bedford,
MA |
1866 |
$250+ |
|
|
Lead
Acid |
Chicago,
IL |
1922 |
NA |
|
|
Alkaline |
Milwalkee,
WI |
1938 |
<$1 |
|
|
Alkaline |
Erie,
PA |
1956 |
NA |
|
|
NiCd,
NiMH, Lead Acid, Lithium, Alkaline |
Mansfield,
TX |
1964 |
$250+ |
|
|
Lead
Acid, Li-Iron Phosphate, NiCd, NiMH |
San
Diego, CA |
1970 |
$50-99 |
|
|
Lead
Acid, NiCd, Pure Lead, Gel Cell |
Bensalem,
PA |
1971 |
$1-4.9 |
|
|
Lithium,
Li-ion, Lead Acid |
Anaheim,
CA |
1973 |
NA |
|
|
Lead
Acid, NiCd, NiMH, Lithium |
Hartford,
CT |
1983 |
NA |
|
|
Alkaline |
Salinas,
CA |
1990 |
NA |
Table 3
1.4 Nuclear Diamond Batteries
A
Great solution to contribute to the environment is the support of NDB – Nuclear
Diamond Batteries. They are also called carbon-14 diamond beta-voltaic battery.
This means that the nuclear material at one end of the battery is encapsulated
in a combination of diamond material combined with processed nuclear. material
to only produce beta-radiation that can be easily shielded.
1.5 The Power
Source
The batteries
through a process called chemical vapor deposition, the same used in
semi-conductor manufacturing. The use of c-14 Methane and Hydrogen plasma grow
diamond films at very high temperatures. The diamond used for the battery will
have many thin layers of large crystalline grains, imbedded with re-processed
nuclear waste.
This is not
new technology, Beta voltaic were invented back in the 1950’s. But the
materials used has evolved such that with the application of graphene will make
these new batteries more efficient.
If you use a
carbon-14, Arkenlight power cell it will take 5,730 years to reach 50% activity
and current creation levels.
The NBD
combines and emitter, NDB T1 Transducer, and collector to form an ohmic and
Schottsky contact. There is the utilization of different dopants to enhance the
batteries’ structure.
A Nuclear battery design. Credit: V. Bormashov
et al./Diamond and Related Materials
Figure 4
1.6 Thin-Film Structure
The thickness of
the battery is cell is critical as the region where the reprocessed nuclear
material has to be with the radioisotope region, or call the internal
absorption. In this thin-film area the NDB allows radiation to be absorbed by
the collector, like a transistor, to the emitter and transformed into electricity,
with the application of graphene which is excited by beta particles generated
producing electrical current.
1.7 Nuclear Waste T1 System
The application of processed nuclear waste
into a thin-film process I envision to be used in conjunction with Oak Ridge National
Laboratories to produce output product that can be introduced into the diamond
deposition process in conjunction with Graphene to produce artificial diamond
manufacture that is added to the end of any type of battery.
1.8 Applications of Nuclear Diamond Batteries
I see the application of this technology as
infinite. Imagine having hearing aid batteries, pacemaker batteries never
needing changing. Imagine having an electric car that never needs charging.
Nuclear micropower batteries can power all of our electronics forever. All of
our appliances, and electronics will have an inexhaustible supply of power.
Airplanes, Trains, and entire communities
will no longer be dependent on fossil fuel for power generations. Spacecraft with high power NDB batteries can
utilize ion thrusters for high-speed space travel to Mars and beyond, without
worrying about energy needs. Many Russian and American Satellites that were
sent to the furthest reaches of the solar system used a crude nuclear reactor
for all power needs. Russian researchers in Moscow recently designed a nuclear
battery generating power form the beta decay of nickel-63, a radioactive
isotope.
The future is bright with the application of
NDB to help our civilization in meeting its energy needs, and contribute to
ever growing need of energy and power utilized by the people of Earth.
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