Here’s the new, latest version of our Me150 hydrogen generator with our wonder-secretary, Libby, shown for scale. It’s smaller and prettier than the previous version shown at left (previous version of Me150, not of secretary). Hydrogen output is 99.9999% pure, 9.5 kg/day, 75 slpm, 150 scfh H2; it generates hydrogen from methanol reforming in a membrane reactor. Pricing is $150,000. Uses about 7 gal of methanol-water ($6 worth) per kg of H2 (380 ft3). Can be used to fill weather balloons, cool electric dynamos, or provide hydrogen fuel for 2-10 fuel cell cars.
New REB Research hydrogen generator 150 scfh of 99.9999% pure H2 from methanol-water reforming against metal membranes.
Some people have noticed that I’m wearing a rather dapper suit during the recent visit of the press to my lab. It’s important to dress sharp, I think, and that varies from situation to situation. Fashion is an obligation, not a privilege; you’ve got to be willing to suffer for it, for the greater good of all.
Do you think Lady Gaga finds her stuff comfortable? She does it for the greater good.
I’m now on the board of directors for two non-profits (lucky me), plus for my own hydrogen company, REB Research. My first charity seat is for The Jewish Heritage Foundation; it’s really one rabbi who takes donations to make tapes about topics he finds interesting. He then gives away or sells the tapes. We meet once a year to go over the finances and decide what his salary ought to be — basically we rubber stamp.
The second board seat, one I’ve been elected/appointed to just this week, is with a group call “The First Covenant Foundation” they’re semi-religious, trying to get people to behave decently. The first covenant is the one with Noah — God won’t destroy the earth but we have to behave sort-of OK. It’s certainly worthwhile to get people to keep to this minimal standard: no murder, no bestiality, don’t eat the limbs off of living creatures… Then again, if God has trouble keeping folks to this standard, I’m not sure how effective the 1st covenant will be. So far they’ve done nothing illegal or immoral that I’ve seen, so that’s good. Unlike with my first my board position, my contract with first covenant includes a sanity clause. They’re more inclusive that way; as expected, the Jewish heritage group didn’t believe in any sanity clause.
As for REB Research, our aims are simpler: to make and sell good hydrogen-related products, to make money, to pay our workers and creditors, and to develop our workers through training associated with the making and selling of good hydrogen products. Simple enough. My board meets 3 or 4 times a year over pizza; the salary of board members is the pizza. So far we haven’t done anything illegal either, that I know of — and we’re even making money.
It’s a slow news day in Detroit, so the folks from Metromedia came to visit my laboratory at REB Research. You can visit too. We’re doing cool stuff most of the time, we’re working on a hydrogen-fueled plane that stays aloft for weeks (not that cool, actually, the Hindenberg did it in the 30s). On this particular day I’ve got a cool hat on, and a beige suit. I’m putting hydrogen in my car. Hydrogen increases the speed of combustion, and so it adds to milage — or it has when we’ve added it from electrolysis sources.
The fun thing about science is that there are always surprises.
Some 20 years ago I designed this periodic table cup, but with only the 103 named elements that existed then. In part this was done because I wanted a good, large, white coffee cup, in part because I often found I needed a periodic table, and didn’t like to have to look one up, and in part to people how much more area you get on a cylinder than on a flat sheet (roughly 3.14 times more area). To show that, I put all the side elements (rare earth lanthanides, and actinides) where they belonged, and not off on the side. I also put hydrogen in twice, once as a metal (HCl) and once as a non metal (NaH). The color I chose was Tryian Blue, a key color of Biblical Tyre, what you get from male purpura mollusks (the females give a shade of red that I also try to associate with REB Research).
I’ve updated the cup to add more elements: I think it’s great. You can buy it for $30 through our web-site, or for $25 by e-mailing me (reb@rebresearch.com). Or if you do something really cool, I may send you one for free.
REB Research, Periodic table coffee cup
By the way, I only use 4 digits for the atomic weight; I can think of no application where a normal person needs more.
Here is a link to a 3 year old essay of mine about how membrane reactors work and how you can use them to get past the normal limits of thermodynamics. The words are good, as is the example application, but I think I can write a shorter version now. Also, sorry to say, when I wrote the essay I was just beginning to make membrane reactors; my designs have gotten simpler since.
At left, for example, is a more modern, high pressure membrane reactor design. A common size is 72 tube reactor assembly; high pressure. The area around the shell is used for heat transfer. Normally the reactor would sit with this end up, and the tube area filled or half-filled with catalyst, e.g. for the water gas shift reaction, CO + H2O –> CO2 + H2 or for the methanol reforming CH3OH + H2O –> 3H2 + CO2, or ammonia cracking 2NH3 –> N2 + 3H2. According to normal thermodynamics, the extent of reaction for these reactions will be negatively affected by pressure (WGS is unaffected). Separation of the hydrogen generally requires high pressure and a separate step or two. This setup combines the steps of reaction with separation, give you ultra high purity, and avoids the normal limitations of thermodynamics.
Once equilibrium is reached in a normal reactor, your only option to drive the reaction isby adjusting the temperature. For the WGS, you have to operate at low temperatures, 250- 300 °C, if you want high conversion, and you have to cool externally to remove the heat of reaction. In a membrane reactor, you can operate in your preferred temperature ranges and you don’t have to work so hard to remove, or add heat. Typically with a MR, you want to operate at high reactor pressures, and you want to extract hydrogen at a lower pressure. The pressure difference between the reacting gas and the extracted hydrogen allows you to achieve high reaction extents (high conversions) at any temperature. The extent is higher because you are continuously removing product – H2 in this case.
I offer healthcare to keep workers working for me — it’s an employee retention benefit that helps cover the cost of training. As it is now, if they quit, covered workers will have to pay for their own heathcare or find another company that’s willing to pay for it.
Perhaps that’s mean to think this way, but it’s really my only means to keep people from jumping shop at the first higher-paying opportunity. Anyway, that’s what I do/did. When congress gave free healthcare to everyone as of this year, they not only raised my taxes, and my company taxes, they also removed a key tool I have for keeping people on the job. In return, I suppose my healthcare fees are supposed to go down, but I have no faith they will, in part because I worked for the government and have no faith in their ability to be efficient or fast moving; in part because my ability to pay for healthcare comes from my ability to keep trained workers.
Though I’m not too happy about the change, I imagine (hope) that my employees are happy. Their taxes will go up a bit, but they will be more free to jump ship at will. I imagine that the unemployed are especially thrilled, though I don’t know why that was not implemented through an increase in Medicare and Medicaid. In a sense I’m surprised it took congress this long to give everyone “free” healthcare without forcing them to work for it.
