Scientist Discovers a Paste That Beats Gasoline & Batteries!

this video is sponsored by lomi for decades  hydrogen power has held enormous promise as an   alternative to fossil fuels after all who wouldn't  want an energy source made from the most abundant   element in the universe whose only byproduct is  water yet here we are in 2022 and hydrogen still   hasn't lived up to its potential but a new  hydrogen breakthrough may finally give this   promising fuel source its chance to shine even  though it may not look particularly pretty this   innovative hydrogen paste boasts energy densities  that give lithium ion batteries a serious run for   their money will we soon see this goop powering  cars planes the grid let's dive in as a fuel   source hydrogen is sort of like dr jekyll and  mr hyde it has many attractive features for one   it's the most abundant element in the universe  ranking number one on the periodic table well   that isn't because of the abundance it's just the  first element with an atomic weight of one anyway   you get my point and this matters because when it  comes to sustainable energy resource availability   is a pretty critical factor lithium for example  is the 33rd most abundant element but not only is   hydrogen incredibly abundant with a small caveat  which we'll get into in a bit it's also incredibly   clean as fuel and electrochemical process it  combines with oxygen producing electricity   leaving nothing but pure water as a byproduct but  hydrogen has a dark side too first while it is   indeed the most abundant element in the universe  in its purest form it tends to drift off planet   and into space the hydrogen that gets left here on  earth tends to form very strong bonds with other   elements there are a few ways to extract pure  hydrogen but this is where the green footprint   tends to get a bit muddy one of the most popular  methods of extracting hydrogen is called steam   methane reforming essentially burning methane gas  at high pressures and temperatures to separate the   hydrogen from the carbon elements there are two  main problems here the first is that the process   itself is very energy intensive and two the  end result still produces carbon emissions yeah   not looking so hot after all the greener method  for extracting hydrogen is called electrolysis   this involves running electric currents through  water separating the water molecules into hydrogen   and oxygen the problem here is that it still  requires loads of electricity and tons of water   studies revealed that electrolysis loses about 30  percent of its energy from the splitting process   itself then another 26 percent from transporting  the hydrogen in the fuel station leaving only   about half the initial energy before the  hydrogen even makes its way into your vehicle   then there's transportation hydrogen typically has  to either be stored on site where it's extracted   or shipped around in huge pressurized tanks with  no real infrastructure for fueling hydrogen cells   the technology just hasn't taken off as some have  anticipated we've covered more about the drawbacks   of hydrogen in previous videos which you can check  out here but hydrogen may still have its moment to   shine thanks to this yeah it may not look pretty  but according to its creators at the fraunhofer   institute in germany this grey goop may solve  many of hydrogen power's biggest issues it's   called power paste and it's made by combining  hydrogen and magnesium with metal salts and a   compound called ester formed by reaction between  alcohol and acid the two elements are combined at   around 662 degrees fahrenheit at five to six times  atmospheric pressures to form magnesium hydride   but before i tell you about this breakthrough  compound i have to tell you about the most   remarkable little appliance i've seen in years  this is lomi a ridiculously cool beautiful kitchen   electric composter if you do any amount of cooking  i'm sure you're familiar with this food scraps   from vegetables fruit even coffee grounds and egg  shells this isn't trash it's the basis for future   plant food but usually it takes months to break  down but with lomi you can take this and turn it   into nutrient-rich dirt in just hours using lumi  twice a week can reduce your waste footprint by   50 percent it has three modes in eco mode which  uses just around one kilo hour of energy and takes   three to five hours use grow mode and in 16 to 20  hours you have nutrient-rich dirt that's perfect   to turn back around and add to a garden or a house  plant there's even a low me approved mode which   can break down loamy-approved bioplastics whether  you live in a small studio apartment or a farm   convert your food scraps quickly into dirt with  low meat i've had mine for over a month and i   still get a kick out of seeing the results every  morning use my link links dot pella dot earth   slash two bit to check out this revolutionary  new product today huge thanks to lomi and to you   for supporting the companies that support the  show the result is this energy dense gray goop   which the company says could be easily stored and  shipped inside cartridges at room temperatures and   remain completely stable until it reaches about  482 degrees fahrenheit about 250 degrees celsius   so no need to worry about fuel cells exploding  in a parking lot on a hot summer day pretty cool   to release the energy a plunger releases the paste  into a chamber where it reacts with water at a   controlled rate where it's then converted into  electricity around a proton exchange membrane   one major benefit of the technology is that  it resolves the storage and transportation   issue the pace boasts an energy density equal to  a 700 bar tank of hydrogen of the same weight this   cartridge system could also make refueling much  more practical the developers imagine drivers   simply being able to pull out into a service  station and swapping out their old cartridge   for a new one they even suggest that power  pace could be supplied via standard fuel lines   with relatively inexpensive equipment what really  makes this a huge breakthrough though is its   energy density power paste has a specific energy  around 10 times greater than lithium ion batteries   what would that look like in the real world a  long range tesla model 3 battery weighs around   1060 pounds with a capacity of roughly 75 kilowatt  hours which has a usable range of about 300 miles   a traditional eight and a half gallon hydrogen  fuel tank typically carries enough fuel for   about 400 miles of range weighing roughly about  76 pounds a cartridge of the same weight using   power pace could theoretically push your range to  about 3 000 kilometers that would take you from   san diego to seattle and still leave you with a  thousand more kilometers remaining for the average   commuter that would mean needing to fuel about one  time a month now while power pace boasts really   high energy density it stumbles a bit when it  comes to efficiency kind of like gasoline actually   lithium ion batteries are the efficiency champions  running at around 95 percent efficiency meaning   nearly every kilowatt hour stored in the battery  gets converted into usable energy moving your   car forward gasoline is notoriously inefficient  at around 17 to 35 percent efficiency so after   factoring in the chemical transformations and  waste heat you're only using less than a third   of your tank to move your car traditional hydrogen  fuel sits at around 60 efficiency how does power   pay stack up right now the developers say it  maintains an efficiency rate of about 50 percent   which is significantly higher than gasoline but  still quite a bit behind lithium on batteries and   traditional hydrogen fuel cells so is that case  closed on the economic viability of power paste   well what does the data say so let's say it takes  around 80 kilo hours to fully charge a 75 kilowatt   battery there can be some energy leakage and  other inefficiencies right now at the time of   this video in san diego electricity costs roughly  34 cents per kilowatt so roughly 28 dollars to   fully charge your tesla assuming you don't have  home solar or off-rate time of use billing periods   so 28 is about 271 miles that comes in at around  10 cents per mile with the average daily commute   in america sitting around 41 miles you need  to fully charge roughly four times in a month   bring that total monthly cost to about a hundred  and twelve dollars hydrogen fuel costs roughly   sixteen dollars a gallon here in san diego so our  eight and a half gallon tank cost about a hundred   and thirty dollars to fill up if you can go about  400 miles 130 that comes out to roughly 33 cents   per mile so now let's take a look at a power pace  fuel cell which remember has 10 times the energy   density of the lithium ion battery which means  our similarly weighted fuel cell gives us 475 kilo   hours of sweet gray goop under the hood as of this  video there are no hard numbers on how much these   fuel cartridges would cost let alone service fees  or anything else but let's assume for now that   the cost per kilowatt hour is comparable to the  cost of residential energy 35 cents per kilowatt   hour so this swap now cost about 166 dollars but  remember the paste only has a 50 efficiency rating   so that 475 kilowatt hours we end up actually only  getting about 237 kilowatt hours worth of usable   energy if 75 kilowatt hours got us 437 kilometers  of distance about 6.7 kilometers per kilowatt hour   then even a 50 efficiency the power pace can take  us 1600 kilometers which still comes out to about   10 cents per kilometer which is about half the  cost of traditional hydrogen but still twice   as much as lithium ion so yeah as of right now evs  still make way more sense for the typical consumer   not only is electricity cheaper even with  historically high prices it's still plentiful   and don't forget with a battery ev you can  just recharge at home and if you use home solar   you can basically eliminate the cost of refueling  altogether while hydrogen is abundant to refill   your car would still require swapping out your old  cartridge for a new one meaning you'd have to be   someone's customer beholden to prices and supply  chain issues which we all know can be a huge   problem evs just don't face that problem even with  10 times less range evs will still come out on top   for most average consumers so maybe the average  commuter car will continue to be a battery   electric and not hydrogen but what about other  major co2 emitters like airplanes where weight   is a bigger factor than cost aerial vehicles could  be a potential application since current battery   technology is far too heavy for planes to use and  still maintain efficiency and cost effectiveness   using power pace with higher energy densities  could still make sense if it's lighter than   batteries and cheaper than standard fossil fuel it  would be a win-win in fact the developers of power   paste see a future in which their lightweight  energy dense sludge could power things like drones   underwater vehicles medical devices and portable  outdoor camping equipment or backup generators   but the two biggest applications i think would be  aircraft and large cargo shipping vessels which   both currently use a lot of petroleum and don't  have an equivalent yet in the battery world then   there's possible grid level applications as well  say an offshore wind farm with a steady supply of   seawater to refuel electric ships now there are  still a handful of questions surrounding power   paste namely what happens to the byproducts after  all since we're no longer using pure hydrogen we   no longer get pure water at the end it's possible  that the leftover magnesium and metal salts could   be recycled though that would involve developing  some kind of infrastructure that doesn't exist yet   how economically viable is it to produce the paste  is it environmentally friendly so the production   recycling life cycle questions i think are one of  the big things that i'm thinking about that remain   unanswered will power paste finally allow hydrogen  energy to catch up to battery technology or is it   yet another pipe dream should we even be looking  into hydrogen breakthroughs at all especially with   more and more advanced battery technology proving  to be so efficient sound off in the comments below   all right that's a look at this cool new  breakthrough hydrant is one of those things   i want to love but there's so many challenges with  it being so small being so tiny and abundant it's   very hard to keep and compress but this paste  does seem pretty promising it would solve a   lot of the problems that i think hydrogen has  been plagued with for years for decades really   but what do you guys think check our other videos  we have some other stuff we think you're going to   love and as always i'm ricky with  davinci we'll catch you guys next week

Channel: Two Bit da Vinci

Views: 558,516

Keywords: two bit da vinci, new battery technology, hydrogen, hydrogen power, hydrogen power paste, hydrogen energy, hydrogen breakthrough, hydrogen fuel cell, hydrogen car, hydrogen generator, hydrogen engine, energy breakthrough, hydrogen cars, future hydrogen cars, why is hydrogen so expensive, why is hydrogen stupid, why is hydrogen important, Scientist Discovers a Paste That Beats Gasoline & Batteries, new hydrogen breakthrough

Id: cahzRSO5niE

Length: 12min 39sec (759 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 21 2022

Reddit Comments

[u/Jane_the_analyst]

...am I the only one who sees an instant military application of this energy dense paste?