A Solid-State Maxwell Demon

[ZL]

While searching for something else, stumbled across this interesting and very convincing scientific paper about a device that can extract electric power from low grade ambient heat at room temperature. Unlike heat engines, this doesn't require temperature gradient. The basic principle is quite simple: the thermal energy (Brownian motion) in the depletion zone of a special diode creates a potential difference, which charges a capacitor. The capacitor is then discharged utilizing the converted heat energy. Then the cycle starts over again.

The basic cell is microscopic, the power converted by a single diode is also minuscule (Pcell=0.5e−9 – 5e−9 W), but if you calculate the power density that can be extracted from a huge array of these units (like in an IC or MEMS) is remarkably large Pv=0.5 GW – 5 GW/m^3. Of course this is just a theoretical value, assuming that there would be a continuous input of heat power into that volume equal to the extracted electrical power in order to maintain the temperature at a reasonably high level. This heat supply system would consume some extra volume, diluting the quoted enormous theoretical power density. But if a practical embodiment of this converter array could achieve even a tiny fraction of this power density, it could be still used as a very compact refrigerator-electric generator that produces electric power, instead of consuming it.

The paper can be downloaded from:
http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.361.6283&rep=rep1&type=pdf

This is not the subject of my focus right now, but if there are people on this forum who are looking for FE principles that really work (or at least make sense, and have scientific basis) then this one deserves your attention.

Zoltan

[memoryman]

Watch Dr. Daniel Sheehan on youtube; challenges to the second law...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bBp_SPJAOJc
He also has an interesting talk about a computer that recovers its own heat and uses that to power itself.
A friend of mine is trying to make a practical device that converts infra red radiation directly into electricity.

[ZL]

The paper is quite convincing and the theory looks plausible, but that doesn't mean one should blindly believe it is absolutely correct, just because it was written by a scientist with a Ph.D. Blindly believing scientific "authorities" in FE research can be very misleading, and can cause losses (speaking from personal experience). While it is good to see that this subject has broken into the official scientific literature (which is weird on its own), something doesn't feel right around this invention. We have to use our own discernment and critical thinking to find out whether this is just another trap, or it is real. A bit of detective work would get us closer to the truth.

The video "SSE Talks - Challenges to the 2nd Law of Thermodynamics - Daniel Sheehan" was recorded 8 years ago, and no sign of new developments. Nobody promotes it, or talks about this thing any more. There were at least 2 websites associated with this invention www.paradigmenergy.com and www.alternative-renewable-energy.com and both have disappeared about 4 years ago, or earlier.

He also has an interesting talk about a computer that recovers its own heat and uses that to power itself.

Do you have the link to that talk?

Does anybody see any reason why this invention would be a fallacy?

Let me play the devil's advocate just for a minute, and present another paper that attempts to debunk this invention. It was written by Germano D'Abramo who works for "Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica, Via Fosso del Cavaliere 100, 00133, Roma, Italy". The title of the paper is "A Note on Solid-State Maxwell Demon" and can be downloaded from:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/47817342_A_Note_on_Solid-State_Maxwell_Demon

His arguments are not valid though. Can anybody see the fallacy in his debunking?

[memoryman]

What Dr.Sheehan di was to make an device to prove his theory; this may never become a practical product.
Here is the video  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgBnMFvZSXc
Same thing; just because it can be done does not mean that it can be made into a successful product.
What my friend is doing is similar; it has been proven in a lab but now needs to be scaled up.

[ZL]

What Dr.Sheehan di was to make an device to prove his theory; this may never become a practical product.

That is one possible explanation. Another more probable version is that his websites have disappeared exactly because this invention, and the underlying principle can be made into practical products that are too disruptive to publish in detail for the whole world. This could be also the reason why no further developments are being published.

Even though his websites have been taken offline, you can still find traces of them at archive.org (make a search and see). When you display the page of  www.alternative-renewable-energy.com as it has been (allegedly) archived on 30.10.2008:

https://web.archive.org/web/20081030015646/http://www.alternative-renewable-energy.com:80/
(backed up also at http://archive.is/y2YuY)

you will see a weird occurrence. On this snapshot of the page that supposed to have been taken in 2008, you can see also posts made in 2009, 2010, and 2012. If it was really archived in 2008, then how come it has posts made at later dates?