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<blockquote data-quote="Umbran" data-source="post: 6690647" data-attributes="member: 177">Yes, it is plausible.&nbsp; It is a fuel cell, and the basic idea dates back to 1838 - <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell" target="_blank">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell</a>Now, when they say early in that video that there's no burning - that's technically inaccurate.&nbsp; The fuel cell takes some specific fuel, and combines it with oxygen to get energy.&nbsp; What do you think &quot;combine fuel and oxygen&quot; is?&nbsp; Oxidation, aka &quot;burning&quot;.&nbsp; A fuel cell does it without an open flame, mediated by a catalyst on a substrate that takes a spare electron out of the process and feeds it into a wire.Now, note something - you need fuel for this to work.&nbsp; In order to put one of those in your yard to power your house, you need it to be next to a fuel tank, or fed by a municipal fuel line, or something.&nbsp; So, yes, you can remove power lines and electrical distribution grids, but then you need to have fuel distribution instead.&nbsp; My house already gets natural gas, so I could install one of these in my basement.&nbsp; But for rural areas that don't have gas service?&nbsp; Carting around big bottles of flammable liquids to remote areas is not itself cheap, energy-wise. Also note that whether the energy is &quot;clean&quot; depends on the fuel used.&nbsp; If you use pure hydrogen, then you get water and a bit of heat out - that's not bad, but pure hydrogen is actually pretty expensive.&nbsp; If you use a fossil hydrocarbon, you get CO2 out, which is not so good.&nbsp; If you use a biofuel (say, alcohol), then at least the carbon is coming from the biological carbon cycle - but typically you have to watch biofuels because their production processes are often not very clean.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Umbran, post: 6690647, member: 177"] Yes, it is plausible. It is a fuel cell, and the basic idea dates back to 1838 - [url]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fuel_cell[/url] Now, when they say early in that video that there's no burning - that's technically inaccurate. The fuel cell takes some specific fuel, and combines it with oxygen to get energy. What do you think "combine fuel and oxygen" is? Oxidation, aka "burning". A fuel cell does it without an open flame, mediated by a catalyst on a substrate that takes a spare electron out of the process and feeds it into a wire. Now, note something - [i]you need fuel for this to work[/i]. In order to put one of those in your yard to power your house, you need it to be next to a fuel tank, or fed by a municipal fuel line, or something. So, yes, you can remove power lines and electrical distribution grids, but then you need to have fuel distribution instead. My house already gets natural gas, so I could install one of these in my basement. But for rural areas that don't have gas service? Carting around big bottles of flammable liquids to remote areas is not itself cheap, energy-wise. Also note that whether the energy is "clean" depends on the fuel used. If you use pure hydrogen, then you get water and a bit of heat out - that's not bad, but pure hydrogen is actually pretty expensive. If you use a fossil hydrocarbon, you get CO2 out, which is not so good. If you use a biofuel (say, alcohol), then at least the carbon is coming from the biological carbon cycle - but typically you have to watch biofuels because their production processes are often not very clean. [/QUOTE]

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