Re: Raleigh, Just to follow your topic, SHEC Labs has done it again!!!!

That's why it makes more sense to use concentrating PV technology to
generate DC electricity, and use the DC electricity to efficiently make
hydrogen from water via electrolysis of water. This releases oxygen.

Of course you need to reduce the cost of solar electricity to less than
$0.30 per peak watt to be cost-effective. But, this is a reduction of
20:1 - which is easily achievable with low-cost optics. In practice we
can achieve 500:1 concentration advantages without overheating using a
variety of improvements. These include, spectral filtering, full water
immersion of the PV device, and the use of water as an optical medium,
along with very low cost molded PET water containers - and other
improvements.

In the end we can achieve $0.07 per peak watt in large-scale production
according to architects and engineers we have retained.

But, what do you do with the hydrogen once you have it efficiently?
Well, many here would want to sell it directly. And you can certainly
do that.

But in today's market, you are better of if you can use the SABATIER
PROCESS to absorb CO2 and produce methane! Then, you use the methane
using a ZEOLITE PROCESS to make liquid fuels!

Fresh Water: 18 H2O --> (from air)
Electrolysis: 50 H2O ---> electrolysis ---> 50 H2 + 25 O2
Sabatier: 16 CO2 + 64 H2 --> 16 CH4 + 32 H2O (CO2 from air)
Zeolite: 16 CH4 --> zeolite --> 2 C8H18 + 14 H2

If we compare the mass of hydrogen made with sunlight (50 x 2 x 1 amu)
= 100 amu versus the mass of octane produced (2 x ((8 x 12 amu) + (18 x
1 amu))) = 228 amu we obtain a ratio of 2.28 to one. That is, 1 tonne
of hydrogen made from sunlight yeilds 2.28 tonnes of octane. And a
tonne of octane is about 364 gallons of the stuff - or 8.66 barrels.
Now, a barrel of pure octane is worth about $80 - so, that's worth
$690!

The water produced in the Sabatier Process gets recycled in the
electrolysis process. The hydrogen produced in the Zeolite Process
gets recycled in the Sabatier Process - reducing the water needed from
the air. Note that the number of molecules of CO2 is nearly equal to
the number of molecules of H2O - so, we can produce all the water we
need even in very dry climates - with water below 1% !!!

Of course, instead of selling octane (gasoline) we can take off
hydrogen in step 2, or methane in step 3 - if we have a buyer for it.

The problem with financing power projects on a large scale is the need
to create something that is marketable. A ready market must exist that
allows a buyer to pay regular payments to take the power or products.

Marketable electricity is generally AC power produced when a demand
exists. Solar panels produce DC electricity when the sun shines. This
means we need inverters and batteries. And that increases the balance
of system to very very high costs.

A large reliable market does not currently exist for hydrogen. A
large reliable market DOES exist for both methane and octane. So, by
producing these from sunlight - and atmospheric CO2 - we have a means
to make use of solar energy WITHOUT increasing CO2 levels in the air,
since every molecule of CO2 produced in this way is recycled using
sunlight. NO NET CO2 PRODUCTION!

Now some will moan about the fact that half the energy is WASTED making
CH4 in the way described. But, that's not a show stopper - the cost is
the show stopper. As long as solar panels are cheap enough - we can
use them in this way. And, with solar panels - along with balance of
systems cost - no more than $0.07 per peak watt, we can see that the
system is cost effective source of regular hydrocarbon liquid fuels!

Applying a discount rate of 8% per year to the capital tied up in
equipment for the life of the equipment, we obtain an annual cost of
$0.007 per year per peak watt. If we operate the panels for 2,000
hours per year - which is a sunny site - we obtain 2 kWh in that year
from each watt, so our cost is $0.0035 per kilowatt-hour.

Now, a tonne of hydrogen takes about 50,000 kWh to make with our
system. So, we have $175.00 per tonne of hydrogen.

Since that tonne of hydrogen can make $690 worth of gasoline - we make
a profit of $515.00 !!

Of course, there are equipment and energy costs involved in capturing
the atmospheric CO2 as well as equipment costs involved in making
Sabatier Reactors and Zeolite reactors. But, these appear to be around
$300 of capital cost per tonne of liquid fuel processed per year - and
this translates to an annual cost of $30 per year - using our same cost
of money formula as for the solar panels. So, that raises the capital
cost by 2.28 x $30 = $68.40 ~ $70 per tonne of hydrogen processed per
year - which makes the total $245.00 per tonne of hydrogen - reducing
the profit on $690 in sales of gasoline to $445 per year on a total
capital cost of $2,450 - Of this total, about 80% of it can be bank
financed (after feasability is shown to the lender's satisfaction) at
8% APR or less. This number can rise to 95% as payments are made on
the first installations - giving a good history of performance!

Dividing by 8.66 barrels per year - we obtain the following relation;

$278.40 capital cost - Barrel Per Year Capacity
(atmospheric CO2 to Octane!)

$55.68 invested capital (20%)
$222.72 borrowed capital(80%)

$80.00 per year - REVENUE

$22.27 debt service
$7.73 operation costs
$25.00 Intellectual Property/Process Management

$25.00 CASH TO INVESTORS

Providing a nearly 50% annualized rate of return for the investors!

The world today consumes 28 billion barrels of liquid fuels.

Using these BOE figure as representative - we could make use of solar
collectors and atmospheric CO2 to displace ALL of today's oil
production with the investment of 28 x $278.40 = $7,795.2 billion -
which is less than the $9,000 billion cost of the 2000 NYSE and NASDAQ
meltdowns!

Of course this doesn't have to be done all at once. And, we only need
to come up with 20% of it - or $1,559.0 billion - (at worst) - More
likely, after the first few successful installs, we could obtain 95%
financing - with only 5% 'skin in the game' - which reduces overall
venture capital to $389.8 billion - which could easily be achieved over
a 12 year period without creating undue stress on the capital or
banking markets.

What sort of area do we need to make this real?

Well, we need 25,000 peak watts to make a tonne of hydrogen in a year.
Dividing this by 8.66 barrels per year translates this to 2,886.8 peak
watts per barrel per year. Multiplying this by 28 billion barrels per
year obtains 80,831.4 billion peak watts!

Now, in testing we have obtained 40% efficiency with
multi-junction/multi-spectral cells. And, in the high desert - like
Northern Nevada - we have measured well over 1,000 watts per square
meter. So, this translates to a peak output of 400 watts per square
meter. Our land coverage, with shading, is around 60% - so, we produce
240 watts peak output for each square meter of land covered with our
panels. That's 240,000,000 peak watts per square kilometer.

So, each square kilometer of collector will produce 83,137 barrels per
year of liquid fuels from atmospheric CO2 (and atmospheric H2O - which
distills out of the air at higher temps than CO2 does!)

Dividing 83,137 barrels/yr/km2 into 28,000,000,000 barrels/yr obtains
336,793 km2.

This seems like a lot of land, and it is, but its LESS than the land
controlled by the world's two largest gold companies - who mine gold in
desert regions from large area mines. That's Anglo Ashanti Gold and
Newmont Mining. My company has approached both companies about using
their spent lands as solar collecting sites! These sites will be
available when the mines have played out in about 12 years!

The complete development of both company's sites would provide the
world with essentially all its liquid fuels without releasing any NET
CO2 - and capture the trillion dollar per year cash flow now enjoyed by
the major oil companies and middle east oil kingdoms.

To make this many solar panels using our technology requires 70 plants
costing $1.8 billion each - each employing 690 people. Each plant will
produce 100 billion watts of panels each year! But, this is a small
cost in the grand scheme of things.

To kick things off, we are putting together a $250 million downstroke
will produce one production cell to prove the solar panel and variable
hydrogen production technology on the scale and at the prices needed -
achieving $0.20 per peak watt for the entire system at first - and
demonstrating efficiency growth to achieve $0.07 per peak watt in
larger production.

This demonstration factory cell will produce 1 billion watts per year -
with three shifts - and will instantly make us the world leaders in the
solar panel business. Of course, the installation of inverters and
batteries will raise costs to well over $3 per watt - but it will
provide a way to make profits immediately.

Selling solar panels allows us to make money and support the research
for synthetic fuel production from atmospheric CO2 and sunlight.

Once we demonstrate this core competency with fuels, we can close long
term fuel supply contracts, obtain project financing commitments, and
raise capital to build our first full-scale plant (nominally in
Pennsylvania) for our first $1.8 billion plant - producing 100 GW per
year of panels.

We figure once we are able to collect money that $250 million will
purchase 25% of our solar panel business - and provide investors a far
greater than 40% annualized rates of return.

Investors will likely exit with 7.7x their invested capital in 4 years
- once we complete our first fuel supply contracts, and on the strength
of these contracts go public - which will support a $7.7 billion
valuation (a mid-cap oil company) or more!

>>From there growth will be dramatic and strong and upward without limit.


China has been showing a 9% per year growth in oil demand. India and
Russia is no slouch either, with 7% growth. US demand grows at 4% -
world demand grows at around 3% on average.

With a 9% annual rate of growth, the 28 billion barrels of oil per year
now consumed will grow to 78.75 billion barrels per year in 12 years!
SO, even if we make 28 billion barrels of oil - and the world's current
oil supply makes another 28 billion barrels of oil - we'll still need
ANOTHER 22.75 billion barrels of oil to make up the difference! THIS
CAN COME FROM DISPENSING WITH THE CARBON AND USING THE HYDROGEN
DIRECTLY! Or, we can make more solar panels and install them!

A more reasonable 3% annual rate of growth will grow the 28 billion
barrel consumption per year to 39.9 billion barrels per year in 12
years. In this scenario, our 28 billion barrels will just fill the
needed due to the oil company's decrease in production over this
period! That's an average of 6.8% per year decline in average
production over the period - which is consistent with Hubbert curve
predictions over this period.

Which is the basis of our strategic plan as outlined here.

Cheers.

William Mook, President
Mok Industries, LLC

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: Solar-hydrogen home power system?
    ... > outset that solar panels are $6 per watt. ... > discount rates and rapid growth in energy use. ... > capital cost hardware. ... > number like $0.60 per peak watt, ...
    (sci.energy.hydrogen)
  • Re: Solar-hydrogen home power system?
    ... > outset that solar panels are $6 per watt. ... > discount rates and rapid growth in energy use. ... > capital cost hardware. ... > number like $0.60 per peak watt, ...
    (sci.energy)
  • Re: How many hydrogen cars on the road in the US today?
    ... Williamknowsbest wrote: ... Your cost of $7 per peak watt was quite a bit better than you can get in the> UK. ... remember I"m a manufacturer of solar panels. ...
    (sci.energy.hydrogen)
  • Re: Hydrogen economy will never exist
    ... >> dioxide apart or ripping the water apart. ... What is the cost of that per kg? ... >> Wet chemistry electrolyzers with KOH electrolyte and stainless steel ... Over 24 hours that averages out to 0.275 watts of output per peak watt ...
    (sci.energy.hydrogen)
  • Re: Hydrogen economy will never exist
    ... >> dioxide apart or ripping the water apart. ... What is the cost of that per kg? ... >> Wet chemistry electrolyzers with KOH electrolyte and stainless steel ... Over 24 hours that averages out to 0.275 watts of output per peak watt ...
    (sci.energy)