Lithium Fluoride Thorium Reactor ( LFTR)

LFTR is expected to become the major energy source for most of the world.  A great amount of attention has focused on LFTR as the major energy source for the world.   LFTR is a specific type of Molten Salt Reactors (MSR) that was discovered and operated in the 1960s by the US government.  A brief introduction to MSR and LFTR is provided to understand the enormous potential LFTR offers as a clean abundant source of energy and its byproducts needed for medical treatments.  LFTR use molten fluoride salts for the coolant. 

LFTR operates at low pressure, since they do not need high pressure to transfer heat from the reactor to the generator.  Thorium is the major fuel source used by LFTR.  It is dissolved in a liquid Lithium-Beryllium-Fluroide  (LiF-Be-F₂₎  salt that remains in a liquid state without pressure from 500^o C to 1400^o C.  Whereas most nuclear reactor  plants are high Pressure Water Reactors (PWR) that operate at 315^o C and operate at 150 atmospheres pressure.  This characteristic requires enormous infra-structure to contain a leak if one should occur.

For uranium reactors, natural uranium is mined, purified, and chemically converted to uranium hexafluoride prior to enrichment. The process of enrichment results in two output streams, one enriched and one depleted. Approximately five parts out of six of the original uranium ends up in the depleted stream, with only one part out of six going on to be fabricated into nuclear fuel. Most of the small amount (0.7%) of the original uranium that is uranium-235 ends up in the enriched stream, but about a third remains in the depleted stream. The enriched uranium hexafluoride is chemically converted back to uranium dioxide, pressed into pellets, loaded into zirconium tubes to form fuel rods, and arranged into clusters to form fuel assemblies. These assemblies are then loaded into a reactor where they will spend approximately five years in the core in various locations to generate nuclear energy. At the end of their useful life, they are removed from the reactor and allowed to cool in a spent fuel pond.

The fluoride chemical form of the fuel is another important advantage, chemically trapping fission products such as cesium, strontium, and iodine in chemically stable forms and strongly limiting their potential for dispersal. The fact that the salt is only fluid at high temperatures is another advantage for reactor safety, meaning that if it is cooled to ambient temperatures it freezes and traps fission products therein.

The chemical processing system that enables the thorium fuel cycle must be demonstrated at a prototype scale, and then at a larger bench scale, before ultimately being tested in a real reactor. Associated with this will be the need to demonstrate that long-lived actinides can be excluded from the waste stream through the proper operation of the chemical processing system. And perhaps most importantly, a business case that accounts for the totality of potential products from the reactor must be developed and shown to be competitive with low-cost hydrocarbon fuels.

The loss of grid power can mean major interruption to mission-critical work that may have catastrophic results to your business. As organizations are becoming increasingly concerned about reliable utility supply, power quality and the vulnerability of the grid, many are taking greater responsibility to secure their own energy supply and infrastructure – particularly those organizations and industries dependent on reliable power without interruption.

The space constraint must be considered when designing a microgrid.  For example,  a 1-MW solar PV system in a region with adequate solar resources would require a surface the size of three football fields with direct access to sunlight. The same 1 MW from fuel cells would require about 20% of a single end zone and can be installed almost anywhere, such as in basements or underutilized buildings. A solar MW and a fuel cell MW are not created equal either. One MW of installed solar capacity produces about 1.5 MWh of electricity per year. One MW of solid oxide fuel cell capacity generates about 8.8 MWh.

Gestalt Energy is engaged in LFTR  and micro-grid R&D.  It also provides data science, artificial intelligence / machine learning,  modeling , chemical and electrical engineering and energy consulting services for oil & gas and chemical processing business segments. 

There are economic and environmental advantages of using algae as biofuel,  but there are some disadvantages as well. If we are going to have any sort of mass adoption and use of algae biofuel, it’s important to understand both the pros and cons.  Algae are cultivated in large pools or farms to produce biofuel.. The micro-organisms convert sunlight to energy, and store the energy as oil. The oil is extracted using a mechanical process such as pressing or using sound waves, or with chemical solvents that break down the cell walls and release the oil.

Biofuel is fuel derived from biological material that was recently living, such as trees, agricultural wastes, grass, or crops. This material is also called biomass, which is simply an organic matter that can be converted to fuel and is regarded as a potential energy source. Biofuel can be solid, liquid, or gas, and is a substitute for traditional fossil fuels like petroleum, natural gas, propane, and coal.

As an alternative to fossil fuels, biofuels can reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase energy security. They are growing in global use, with industries expanding in North and South America, Europe, and Asia.

Making algae into biofuel starts in a lab, where each strain is tested and then modified genetically to grow faster and be richer in lipids, the non-water-soluble fatty acids that produce algae oil, the essential ingredient of the hoped-for liquid biofuel.  Microalgae can contain 15 to 77% oil, making it an attractive candidate for biodiesel fuel production.

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he algae must be harvest and break down the cell walls with chemical solvents, then extract the inner lipids, proteins and carbs, which undergo a final processing step to convert them into biofuel. Then there is the need to scale up the entire process, growing the microalgae at an industrial scale in vast outdoor pools requiring huge amounts of land and tremendous quantities of fresh or salt water.

Gestalt Energy’s objective is to develop algae strains that product biofuels that are cost-competitive with fossil fuels.  The company’s scientist are tailoring algae cultivation and discovering methods to make algae grow faster in large outdoors ponds.  The scientist have used CRISPR gene-editing technology to create algae strains that have been shown to have the capability to become the ultimate energy-producing microalgae strains. 

Algae cost more per unit mass than other second-generation biofuel crops due to high capital and operating costs, but are claimed to yield between 10 and 100 times more fuel per unit area.  This is less than 1⁄7 the area of corn harvested.

Algae for biofuels is typically farmed in ponds, using the sun.  This method can potentially grow the algae in a confined space, just using electricity from the solar panels.  A bioreactor is also way to grow algae, typically using light.