Why This Liquid That Stores Solar Energy for Years Matters

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It would be good to plan for '1 Year later' or 'several years later' videos on some of these technologies. It would show which of these technologies did or will break through.

You didn't specify the energy density of the MOST fluid, so I found it for you. It's 396kJ/kg, which is 110Wh/kg. Lithium ion batteries are almost 3 times that. Volumetric density is 359 kJ/L (100 Wh/L), compared to more than 730 Wh/L for Lithium ion batteries. Maximum theoretical specific density is "966 kJ kg−1 = 268 W h kg−1 (unsubstituted norbornadiene)" from the paper. I don't know if links are permitted. Anyway, they're using derivatives to increase the energy collection efficiency, and possibly stability, so you can have 3%, 18 years or 268 Wh/kg, not all at once. The idea of using this to power headphones and mobile phones is ridiculous, "both" from the energy density, the flammability, the toxicity, the heat generation, and the fact you need a TEG or a Stirling engine generator in the device. The chemistry is based on Norbornadiene-Quadricyclane photoisomerization. Norbornadiene is flammable, Quadricyclane is flammable and toxic. It might be useful as a way to extract/store energy from short wavelength sunlight (~300nm) as an addition to other technologies that doesn't perform well with those wavelengths. E.g. as a thin layer of fluid channels on top of solar cells. In that case it could probably cool the PV cells, increasing its efficiency. If it blocks too much of the useful light this would be useless of course.

The problem unfortunately with these "meta stable" isomers that are high energy, is there is a substantial decay rate generally speaking. I wouldn't be surprised if that "shipped liquid" had lost at least 3/4s of it's "high energy" isomer. High energy states aren't really that metastable if they were easy to get to, versus say a redox reaction like reducing CO2 to methane, where substantial energy is involved, any oxidation/energy release would be completely insignificant. This is just an isomerization, granted a pretty good one but easy come easy go, it's not as if we have carbons being reduced here. Redox reactions generally just release more energy too, if you put it on par with Lithium I'd say head to head good ol' Lithium batteries would probably outdo this in energy density, couldn't say by how much, but guesstimate 50%. Even if the conversion is higher energy than I think, say extreme UV wavelengths, most of that energy is filtered out by our ozone layer. This would make sense to me if it's decay rate is reallllllly small. This isn't a jug of gasoline you can use years later. Similar to a nuclear isotope (or evaporation of gasoline from a lackluster container) there will be decay, and likely very very significant. Anything to stabilize it will invariably lower efficiency further by pushing the envelope of bond breaking higher. Also.... catalysts are generally not cheap, what they are using really matters here (is it Nickel mesh on carbon? is it palladium?). I always thought photo switching was a cool concept, but after a Master's on this shit, it's still too much of a gimmick for real world high energy processes. I know it seems Im shitting all over it...I kind of am....it does have some pretty neat applications, as a SWITCH...not as an energy medium. You would likely have much higher efficiencies with concentrated solar simply heating a material engineered to have ungodly heat capacity, versus a single bond based conversion of isomers. Capturing photons is best left to large conjugated bonds or metals chelated complexes with lots of happy d orbital electrons to do the jumping states.

I had heard that the CSP tower plant you referenced had closed and was not currently active. This was mainly due to corrosion in the pipes, lowered output than predicted and an accident. It’s good to see they got it back up and running. Thank you for mentioning it, as I thought this project had been abandoned after this accident.

Not sure if I missed it in the video, but do we know the storage density of this liquid? How much would be required in a closed loop to provide X amount of heat energy?

I find the concept of light directly converted to chemical storage then converted straight to heat in a closed loop system very interesting. The conversion efficiency of light to doesn't need to be real high if you can collect for 8 months to get you through 4 months of heating during the winter especially since you would be collecting during the long days of summer to use during the short days of winter. Appropriate sizing of the system with long term storage would be easier also as you wouldn't have to over build your system in summer to insure enough in winter. I like the idea of having a 120 degree F heat source on winter days with a high of -10 degree F when even air - air heat pumps don't operate efficiently. It would be important to know life span expectancy of this system as I am disappointed in compressor life in heat pumps.

As always, a very informative video. Thanks!

Love your videos! I always learn so much about the topics you cover.

This is cool because it is a new technological concept I haven’t seen before, rather than just a refinement of an existing concept. The isomer + catalyst approach is fundamentally different from producing a liquid fuel that requires later combustion (and needs careful handling from combustion dangers), or straight thermal storage. And because it’s liquid, it could theoretically be made in sunnier areas and shipped to less sunny areas, if the energy density makes shipping worthwhile.

Hi Matt - I’ve been a loyal subscriber from almost the very beginning of your channel (you had something like 7.5 thousand subs at the time), and I’ve really enjoyed the way you present new tech and ideas in an easy to understand way, but I also love trying to catch all of the puns you sneak in throughout…..Anyway, I just happened to notice today that you reached the AMAZING 1 million subscriber threshold!!! CONGRATS! That’s a truly awesome accomplishment! As long as you keep making your great content (and clever puns), I’m sure you’re going to keep growing even faster! Keep up the great work! N.S.

Just found your channel. Very much enjoy your attention to detail. Looking forward to more videos. Thank you.

Thanks. Love innovation and those of you who are willing to share it. The best to you always innovators

Cold climate heating during winter for residential. Here in Canada a large portion of our carbon release is for heating, a system like this that could harvest and store heat in the warm months for winter use would be great but as always cost will matter.

Concept is interesting but 3% efficiency for storing thermal energy is amazingly poor. Consider that photosynthesis can be 6% efficient, takes CO2 out of the air, and cellulose can retain that stored energy for a very ling time.

Very interesting. I am always fascinated by the developments that are made almost on a daily basis. Great video!

This is very well presented and enlarges my view of Solar Energy development. Thanks!

I like it! It sounds like a trade-off between efficiency and convenience/affordability. The fluid doesn't capture a large amount of solar energy, but the energy it does capture is rendered into a stable, portable form that can be piped around and used in countless different ways. I don't think anyone will be storing it for years when the sun will still be shining tomorrow, but there's definitely a case to be made for storing sunlight in the summer and using it in the winter.

Just discovered your channel 4 weeks ago, have been watching all the new video's that came out, really liking it. Happy I discovered it. Also happy to see a lot of development is going on to help us deal with current world problems. Good to see that not all is a crisis here and crisis there. Really like the topic you select and the clear explanation. All the best creating all the future video's.

Wonderful Video. Thank you Matt.