Sciencemadness Discussion Board

Uses for electricity

today - 1-9-2006 at 19:47

Hi everone , I have access to alot of cheap electricity, and i was wondering what everone one would think would be a good job to start. The couple i've come up with were turning sea water into salt, incinerate trash into cabon, produce H2 and O2. I would like the job to be profitalbe. Thanks

[Edited on 2-9-2006 by today]

franklyn - 1-9-2006 at 20:27

Nikola Tesla thought AC a neat way to transmit power and at higher
voltages and frequencies to do it without wires.
Thomas Edison tried to prove DC safer by electrocuting an elephant
with AC.
Be a roque elephant executioner and charge admission or
start a mail order business and sell cheap electricity to Californians . :P

.

12AX7 - 1-9-2006 at 21:42

Profitable?

Just how many kWh (or MWh for that matter) can you draw at this low, low price?

My mind wanders from reactive metals to strong oxidizers. Anything from aluminum or sodium metal to sodium perchlorate can be cooked up. For that matter, you might even sell it to members here, if the price comes out cheap enough.

Mind that, to be competitive with real industry, you need a large capital investment to purchase or build the equipment you need (cells, bussbars, rectifiers, transformers), plus a good megawatt capacity.

If this is just a residential hookup (maybe 50kW capacity), you might turn out a good production, but it won't ever match industry's capacity or economy of scale.

Tim

tumadre - 1-9-2006 at 22:27

sodium!

In thinking of 16 cells in a 4 by 4 grid to conserve heat, and electricaly in series to allow 120 VAC to be easly rectified, and used without any voltage conversion,
500 Amps @ 120VAC = 60KW :D:D:D

then again, Today said "incinerate trash into cabon"

so I didn't consider any limitations.

12AX7 - 2-9-2006 at 07:25

Heck, triphase and a grid of, what's a good even square, 49 cells at 480V. Or better yet, a cube, but the closest count would be 64.

Tim

IrC - 4-9-2006 at 12:13

If the thread is about the best use for lots of power and making money, I would have to say you need to start making heavy water. Hard to find on ebay, and United Nuclear is always under fire. Soon we may not be able to buy any. There is a very large market for selling it, especially on ebay, to all of us mad scientists who like to experiment with energy technologies. Besides, everyone you can get it from charges out the ass for it. I for one would really like a cheap source for my cold fusion and fusor experiments!

today - 4-9-2006 at 21:19

Heavy water, but what would you use to make it. Isn't sea water about 3% heavy water.
I was thinking of makeing nitric acid from a spark gap, pump into water and sell to a fertilser company.
Sodium,sodium perchlorate would need a Haz Chem ticket to sell, maybe under the table for you guys :)

IrC - 4-9-2006 at 23:03

"makeing nitric acid from a spark gap"

I would use search and study the keywords in this phrase, as there is a very great deal of conversation here on this topic. From following that old thread, I think you are not going to make money short of an industrial setup using many megawatt/hours of power.

Really look into the heavy water idea as currently 100 grams cost around $65, and I believe the use of electricity to make deuterium oxide is going to be far less investment intensive, and produce much more in the way of money return. That is, if you use the right marketing. Right now this would be selling small quantities to people doing amateur science through an outlet like ebay.

today - 6-9-2006 at 20:55

There is a market for heavy water, on ebay and to iran :)
But how would you make it?