Tuesday, July 24, 2007

Refrigeration devices

I have had some comment on the technology of refrigeration which is very well placed.

The system that I have described to date is no more than our stripped down conventional refrigerator, not because it is the best solution but because it works today. This technology arose in the early twentieth century amid a great deal of experimentation similar to that of the automobile. In other words, it was messy and a lot of very good ideas never made it.

Some years back I met an inventor who had picked up on chemical disassociation as a method to collect energy. The working fluid was sent through the focal point of a parabolic mirror, then passed through a heat exchanger as it recombined. Of course there were technical problems, mostly to do with the small size of the unit. What I did see was a sun driven refrigerator with a very simple (perhaps too simple) system that was close to been bullet proof. That was his first generation prototype and it worked fine.

The energy collector that he used was a parabolic mirror with a broad collector just behind the focal point. It was parabolic in the vertical and linear in the horizontal. This same system can be used to readily drive an expander to drive a power generator and possibly to also heat water.

Both devices are cheap to manufacture and are independent of any power grid. Again battery storage during the day will power the television at night.

The only reason the developed world has never developed these devices is simply because we do not need to. Everywhere else does need this technology for daily living.

The important thing to remember is that the failed ideas of the early twentieth century, failed often enough because material science was in its infancy as was chemistry. It is very timely to dust of those old patents and to see if there is a superior economic strategy that can be implemented now.



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