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July 31, 2006
Trigeneration
I've been trying to wrap my mind around the technology for the last couple of days and I'm still not sure I have a total grasp of the process. Basically it's a technique where you generate all the electricity, heat and cooling needs for a facility on site. It's about 4 times more effective than depending on the grid to do such things because you can instantly take advantage of the fact that you're not wasting energy transmitting electricity over the grid. Not to mention that you are using the waste heat from the process of generating electricity to do a lot of the heating type operations in the home (hot water year around and heating in the winter). Trigeneration takes it to the next level by adding in cooling for the house as well. Now what led me down this road was the funding of an effort in the Europe (of course it's not happening here, it's too cool) to move Micro Combined Heat and Power units to be trigeneration units. Basically the end goal seems to end up with every home being a self-sustaining entity depending on their fuel source rather than the grid itself. Now you immediately run into the problem that you need a fuel source, but with it being so much cheaper to generate your own electricity, it could almost make up the difference for you.
Another interesting thing about this technology is that it reminded me of a movie that fascinated me as a child. I don't remember much about it, except there was an engineer in the jungle and he build a fire powered ice making machine for the natives (The Mosquito Coast). At the time I couldn't grasp how that would work, but now it appears that I have a name for the technology that's at work. It's called a Gas-absorption refrigerator. Basically using the unique properties of Ammonia and Hydrogen you can cover heat directly into cold without a single compressor making it infinitely cheaper to cool anything you want. There are no moving parts, you've just got to deal with two unhappy elements.
Now that I have the formula for how it works, it's still awe inspiring for me to comprehend. The system works within a range that you can actually do it using a solar collector if it's strong enough. The implications are staggering, an air conditioner using this system could be completely solar powered and by the heat of the day, it could be using the very heat you're trying to get rid of to cool your house. Did I mention no moving parts???
What's even more staggering to me is one of the companies that I was reading up on that offers refrigerators built off of this technology, has an entire section on their website explaining why their gas powered refrigerators from before 1955 aren't supported anymore. They started making refrigerators in the 1930's and they are still working and people complain when they breakdown. If your freaking refrigerator works for 80 years and finally breaks, suck it up and buy a new one you cry baby!! I had a brand new top of the line one and it didn't last 3 years, times have changed. Actually they stopped making them for a few decades and only recently decided to get back into the business of selling this cool technology.
Anyway, this is a very, very interesting idea. I think back to being without power for over a week after the last hurricane and the notion that I could have been generating my own electricity and air conditioning is pretty exciting stuff. Of course, the logical choice would be something like natural gas or fuel oil of some sort to fuel it. So you'd need some back up supply of fuel for the bad times, but other than that you would be set. The solar option for your air conditioning would also be great, because it would take a lot of the strain off the grid depending on the situation. Also a system like this done properly could totally change the dynamics of electricity in our country. that is If the Europeans decide to give it to us after it's all said and done. We should really be working on stuff like this ourselves.
Read more over at EurekAlert.
Posted by Jamison at July 31, 2006 6:10 PM
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