MAGIC engine

[charmc]

The Magnesium Injection Cycle engine is powered without using fossil fuels.
Power is generated by the chemical reaction between magnesium and water, which produces high-power steam and hydrogen. The hydrogen is burned at the same time to produce more high-power steam, and the two steam sources power the engine. The new technology produces no carbon dioxide or other harmful emissions and the only by-products from this reaction are water and magnesium oxide. The magnesium is separated from the oxide through a solar-powered laser process and is reused over and over again as fuel. This clean energy cycle, which is supported by solar power, has the potential to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, and could bring about a paradigm shift in the way future energy needs are met.

http://www.mitsubishi.com/mpac/e/mon...608/green.html

[PI Design]

Okay, where's the catch? Is it expensive?

[kach22i]

I just read about this somewhere.;)

The exciting thing about the MAGIC engine is that it introduces competition to the market, the first time since the demise of the steam and electric motor cars.

Just watch oil prices drop like a brick striving to hedge it out of the market before it gains a foothold. No conspiracy theories, just open/free market greed at work.

[StianM]

Okay, where's the catch? Is it expensive?

You would not be able to reuse all the magnesium I supose.

Energy to seperate magnesium from the megnesium oxcyde would be high and I doubt it would do good outside a laberatory.

My two cents

[Bergalia]

OK Charlie - so it works in practice - but will it work in theory ?

[StianM]

The magnesium is separated from the oxide through a solar-powered laser process and is reused over and over again as fuel. [/url]

why would it nead a solar powered laser? Could it not produce it's own power trough a generator?:confused:

Dos it nead 5w from solar power to produce 4 on it's own?

[jehardiman]

why would it nead a solar powered laser? Could it not produce it's own power trough a generator?:confused:

Dos it nead 5w from solar power to produce 4 on it's own?

Most likely. The advantage over typical solar-storage systems would be power density and immediate output. It is basicaly a rechargable primary battery. Many naval weapon system have been using lightweight sea water/active metal batteries for years.

My money says that an analysis will show that the overall system (ore to consumer) is energy negative due to the material (magnesium, high temp steels, solar pannels) processing and forming energy debit.

[jehardiman]

Related article

4m^2 lens? For 400 Whr during daylight only?

In Japan, the Tokyo Institute of Technology is developing an efficient solar powered laser. This laser will supposedly aid in the development of magnesium combustion engine.


According to the professor of mechanical engineering and science, Takashi Yabe, their goal is to create a powerful laser that can effectively combust magnesium from sea water. You would be astonished to know that Magnesium is a great energy source, as its energy storage density is 10 times more than hydrogen. Moreover, it is also immensely abundant.

Yabe also informed that magnesium oxide produced from the reaction can again be converted into magnesium. This recycling process demands great temperature. In order to operate magnesium combustion engine, solar power is required for the lasers. Lasers concentrate sunlight on neodymium-doped yttrium aluminum garnet. Usually, solar powered lasers depends a lot on large mirrors. However, Yabe along with his colleagues have developed an immensely powerful laser.

This was made possible with the addition of chromium. Yabe stated, “Thus the efficiency from sunlight to laser is greatly enhanced.” Instead of large mirrors, they have sued small Fresnel lens. Yabe also informed that, “In our case, we used only 1.3 meter squared and achieved 25 watts,” he further added, “So we are expecting 300 to 400 watts with the four-meter-squared Fresnel lens.”

Sunita Stayapal, HOD of Hydrogen Storage team, state it as unusual approach. She also said, “The key issue is cost and total efficiency.” She also informed several other ways of generating hydrogen from solar power.

[Kay9]

Why not just use the lazer to make steam and forget the other part?

[jehardiman]

Why not just use the lazer to make steam and forget the other part?

No sun at night....;)

[Kay9]

So I guess the question is: Dose Magnesium store energy more efficently then say a Lead acid battery or a gel pack?

I look forward to hearing the answer.

[StianM]

I have seen sugestions about stooring energy in compresed nitrogen.

A pump compress nitrogen and is running as generator when the nitrogen is decompresed.
.
They use something similar on hydraulics where they store energy in big tanks with a membrane containing nitrogen. No idea what the english name is.

[DanishBagger]

Let's say this feasible. That I build such combustion machine on my boat.

It's simple, just add water.

Now, I would need to store that magnesium on my boat, and I would need to make sure, I didn't add water. On a boat?

Seriously, having such a volatile thing om my boat? A product that react to water in a way that resembles gasoline?

Other than that, it sounds excellent! Imagine having this a genset connected to an electric engine! Nice!

[marshmat]

My impression of the technology (the link in post 1 is broken, btw) is that metallic magnesium is being used as an intermediary, ie. a storage medium, between a stationary solar collector and a mobile engine. Much like hydrogen, produced by electrolyzing water via solar-generated electricity, can be stored and later burned in an engine or reacted in a fuel cell. The magnesium or hydrogen is used, in its elemental (high chemical potential energy) state, as a storage medium.
Crude oil is, in a way, similar. It stores in its chemical bonds a large amount of energy that was absorbed many millions of years ago, and is now being released as we burn it. Perhaps the most important difference is that the process of restoring water or magnesium oxide to hydrogen or magnesium, respectively, would be repeated at will by us, while the process of converting plant matter to crude oil ceased with the evolution of organisms capable of decomposing plant matter, and cannot now be restarted.
The magnesium-based system being discussed here has a significant advantage over hydrogen-based storage systems, in that the energy density is probably a lot better. I have to agree with DB, though, that it is a dangerous proposition onboard a boat.

[murdomack]

I have seen sugestions about stooring energy in compresed nitrogen.

A pump compress nitrogen and is running as generator when the nitrogen is decompresed.
.
They use something similar on hydraulics where they store energy in big tanks with a membrane containing nitrogen. No idea what the english name is.

An accumulator? Boyle's Law, PV=k

[StianM]

An accumulator? Boyle's Law, PV=k

bingo

[Guillermo]

Here Charlie's link again. Hope it works.
http://www.mitsubishi.com/mpac/e/monitor/back/0608/green.html

From there:
"The new MAGIC technology is very versatile, and has potential for use in cogeneration, automobiles, ships and many other areas. MC and the Tokyo Tech team believes it will take another three years of further research and experimentation before it is launched for commercial use."

Reaction of magnesium with water (http://www.webelements.com/webelements/elements/text/Mg/chem.html)
Magnesium does not react with water to any significant extent. This is in contrast with calcium, immediately below magnesium in the periodic table, which does react slowly with cold water. Magnesium metal does however react with steam to give magnesium oxide (MgO) (or magnesium hydroxide, Mg(OH)2, with excess steam) and hydrogen gas (H2).

Mg(s) + H2O(g) → MgO(s) + H2(g)
Mg(s) + 2H2O(g) → Mg(OH)2(aq) + H2(g)

Magnesium oxide is remarkably stable, as per:
2 [Mg 2+ (g) + O 2- (g)] → MgO (s) with an associated energy of 2 [-3916]kJ
(See "Priming the Pump for Hydrogen Fuel": http://www.news.com/Priming-the-pump-for-hydrogen-fuel/2100-11392_3-6170740.html)

Something else:
"The thermodynamically favored reaction between water and magnesium, Mg + 2H2O Mg(OH)2 + H2, is normally sluggish, but it becomes reasonably rapid when a milled composite of powdered magnesium metal and powdered iron (1-10 mol %) is used with sodium chloride solutions. Iron functions as an activator, and chloride functions as a catalyst that depassivates the outermost oxide/hydroxide layer and allows water to penetrate to the activated magnesium surface. Adding solutes such as sodium nitrate, copper(II) chloride, and sodium trichloroacetate to the reaction mixture suppresses the yield of dihydrogen. Manometric and calorimetric studies on the stoichiometry and kinetics of the reaction between Mg(Fe) powders and aqueous solutions demonstrate that short-lived, partially, and fully solvated electrons ( and ) are precursors of dihydrogen and that they and the hydrogen atoms (H) formed from them can be scavenged, resulting in suppressed dihydrogen yields."

More about magnesium and water: http://www.lenntech.com/elements-and-water/magnesium-and-water.htm

Cheers.

[Guillermo]

More...2004 news:

"A chemical heat pump using a magnesium oxide/water reaction system is expected to be applicable to cogeneration systems using gas engine, diesel engine, and fuel cells. The operability of the heat pump was examined experimentally under hydration operation pressures between 30 and 203 kPa. In the experiment, a reactant having high durability for repetitive operation was packed in a cylindrical reactor. The cycle of operation was repeated under various thermally driven operation conditions. The forward and reverse reactions were studied by measuring the reactor bed temperature distribution and the reacted fraction changes. The reactor bed stored heat at around 300–400 °C by the dehydration reaction and released heat at around 100–200 °C by the hydration reaction under the heat amplification mode operation. The practical possibility of the reactor bed was discussed based on the experimental results. The heat pump is expected to be applicable for load leveling in a cogeneration system by chemically storing surplus heat during low heat demand and supplying heat during peak demand. It was shown that the chemical heat pump would be able to improve the efficiency of energy utilization in cogeneration systems while also helping to reduce energy consumption and global carbon dioxide emissions."

Y. Kato, , Y. Sasaki and Y. Yoshizawa
Research Laboratory for Nuclear Reactors, Tokyo Institute of Technology,