Sounds like the kind of thing the oil companies and big industry will suppress at great lengths. Can't have any viable alternatives to oil or gas now, can we?

In the CPS Cell nearly any given gaseous or liquid fuel can be combusted in a newly developed thermo-chemical process.
With all the beer and burritos I eat this thing would run forever in my house.

My sister and her husband develop/implement this kind of stuff... or at least the fossil and nuclear reliant versions... Needless to say I don't ask them to explain to me what they're working on... unless I'm having trouble getting to sleep. Of course they're the same people who ask me for help working on their cars etc. and have trouble with television remotes. Go figure.

I still say balloons and sweaters (sweater girl?) are the real untapped energy source for the 21st century. But the government doesn't want you to know about that.

Can it be? Has geek day on Fark finally arrived?

These guys need to get Kb and Mb straight. Their downloadable PDF is listed as being "1.4 kb" rather than 1.4 Mb.

Not sure I trust a tech company that gets that confused ...

Of course, if this thing works as advertised, I'm all for it.

I remember someone saying something like "putting our dick firmly into the snatch of high technology as opposed to the oil companies.." This looks quad penetration gangbang approach. I will be watching for the money shot!

Added advantage:
With a heat recovery loop at the end, the exhaust can leave the vehicle at atmospheric temperature.

Why's that important? Makes the vehicle much harder to spot on IR. The US DoD just might want to invest in this for jeeps and light armored vehicles. (Be a while before it has the power for a main battle tank.)

If the DoD invests, Detroit will not fight it. They know better than to bight THAT hand.

Almost forgot: The "uses any fuel" part also means that battlefield logistics get much simpler.
Doesn't matter what fuel you happen to lay your hands on.

http://enginion.com/
vs.
http://ballard.com/


Come on people put it in a friggin car that I can buy without a 2nd Mortgage. This way I can thumb my nose at oil.

In the CPS Cell nearly any given gaseous or liquid fuel can be combusted in a newly developed thermo-chemical process.

It sounds a bit like the "Mr. Fusion" that Dr. Emmet Browns DeLorian ran on at the end of "Back to the Future". Except I think he used beer and banana peels.

I dunno. Cold Fusion anyone?

I mean, if it were that great, why am I hearing about it on FARK first?

Sounds like the kind of thing the oil companies and big industry will suppress at great lengths.

Very true, but it seems to me that it would behoove the oil companies to invest these alternative energies. Or develop them themselves. But it's true that hybrid car technology has been around for many many years, decades in fact, and the oil companies have effectively blocked the automakers from making them.

So consider: I'm the CEO of Exxon or Mobil or whatever, I have two basic choices for the future of the company. 1) I can invest or (more likely) develop alternative energy sources, so that in the future, when energy consumption is, say, 50/50 oil and alternative, all that money comes back to the company. Who cares if people aren't buying oil, they're making me rich through Exxonalternative (or whatever).

Or, choice 2) go find more oil. Choice one is riskier, but ultimately makes the most sense.

Very true, but it seems to me that it would behoove the oil companies to invest these alternative energies.

Some are, according to their marketers anyway. BP (formerly British Petroleum, now "Beyond Petroleum") has been investing heavly in fuel cell technology and runs nearly one-fifth of the world's solar plants

Of course, this is the same corporation that sent $60 million to the Columbian military in 1996 to protect a pipeline constuction and collaborated in the kidnapping, torture and execution of suspected subversives.

[http://www.mcspotlight.org/beyond/companies/bp.html]

Notice the private venture capital funding and no outside investors welcome? First clue that it's not snake oil. The engineering is elegant. I've seen a small prototype generator running on the CPS.

It may be more competitively priced than the Ballard simply due to the cost of materials associated with PEM fuel cells versus ceramics. The thing that may drive up the cost is that they intend to license it rather than market it. The most attractive thing about it is the lack of polluting emissions...no NOX and no CO.

Somebody looked at the mantle in a camp lantern, and scaled it up. Good idea though.