Most efficient way of making electricity

[BigFly]

well im not sure if this is the right thread cuz im new, but i wanted to know. what are the most efficient ways of making electricity besides nuclear? Is there a way to create a lot of electricity from a relatively small source? Is there any new research or development of this topic?

[Defennder]

What do you mean by "small source"?

[russ_watters]

Efficiency is typically measured thermodynamically and using thermodynamics, nuclear power is the least efficient of the standard methods of power generation. A good combined-cycle gas turbine can be 60% efficient at converting the energy of the fuel to electricity. Nuclear power plant thermodynamic efficiency is on the order of 35%.

But perhaps that isn't what you were asking...?

[BigFly]

well is there a way to create a lot of electricity from a small source? Like a really powerful fuel cell? or a super battery lol? as an example, would it be possible to power an entire house with something as small as a shoebox?

[russ_watters]

So you're looking for an amount of power per a size. Sort of a power density. No, there isn't anything that exists or is on the horizon that would have a power density high enough to power a house from a shoebox-sized device.

Why would this be important?

[BigFly]

i just thought it would be interesting to know thats all. thanks for the post

[Pumblechook]

Efficiency is rather academic.. Cost is the important thing.

A fuel could have a high calorific energy content but the conversion to electricity is wasteful.

Another fuel could have a low calorific energy content but the conversion to electricity is not so wasteful.

Either is possible but the one which wins is the one where the overall cost is lower.

[TheCoolBrian]

What I would like to know is what has the best Cost to operate and build to energy output ratio

[russ_watters]

Welcome to PF. That's two separate questions you asked there. The cheapest to build is a gas-turbine (jet engine) plant. The cheapest to operate is any kind of fuel-less power plant (wind, solar, hydro).

[Mech_Engineer]

I would also say the best power-per-volume (or power per weight for that matter) power systems are gas turbines. Multiple-megawatt gas turbines are surprisingly small, some of their support equipment can take up 10 times the space that the turbine itself requires...

[Emicro]

I would like to know why waste to enegy plants are not more popular. During the early 90's I toured a powerplant just outside of Spokane, Washington that uses refuse exclusively as a fuel source, instead of sending it to a landfill. This seems like a better idea that dumping all that garbage in a big hole and hope that there aren't any pollutants in there.

[mgb_phys]

This seems like a better idea that dumping all that garbage in a big hole and hope that there aren't any pollutants in there.

NIMBY (not in my backyard) - it takes about as long to get planning permission for an incinerator as it does to build the pyramids.

To ensure that all the toxins are completely destroyed you have to run the burn at a very high temerature, so you have to add a lot of fuel. Unless the costs of waste disposal is very high, or the waste is presorted to be mainly paper/card/compostable etc it's not worth it.

It is worthwhile to burn garbage/waste oil etc in a cement kiln - these already run at a temeprature high enough to destroy dioxins. But then they get classified as incinerators and the planning problem starts.

Extracting methane from old capped off landfill and burning that in a gas turbine isgenerally worthwhile.

[theallknower]

well,a battery made of matter-antimatter could do the trick...the only problem is,for every gram of antimatter you would need about 1 tone of electromagnets,so it isn't that volume eficient,unless you want all the energy consumed in 1 moment,not to mention,to produce 1 gram of antimatter is an incredebley hard job,would take years,mabey,but as a simple concept,this should do...
here,have a quote from a book from reader's digest-the misteries of terra:
"the amount of antimatter that the scientists have is enough to light a 100W light for 1 hour,and the antimatter left in the universe is enough for the light to function 100 hours"
so to produce antimater as we know to produce is very ineficient!