Solar Energy
In order to convert solar energy efficiently, a variety of approaches are being developed. The one chosen by Gruen was a heat pump driven by solar energy inputs. A novel concept was elaborated, which utilized a pair of metal alloy hydrides whose hydrogen dissociation temperatures could be adjusted by varying the alloy composition. This, as all of Gruen's work, was motivated by a desire to achieve fundamental understanding, in this case of the science underlying the heats of formation of alloy hydrides. The specific problem to which the basic knowledge was applied, namely the actual operation of a hydride heat pump demonstrated that solar inputs at modest temperature can be used for space heating and air conditioning. The synthesis of the metal alloy hydrides provided an early example of a field that has come to be known as "materials by design."
Read more about this topic: Dieter Gruen
Famous quotes containing the words solar and/or energy:
“Senta: These boats, sir, what are they for?
Hamar: They are solar boats for Pharaoh to use after his death. They’re the means by which Pharaoh will journey across the skies with the sun, with the god Horus. Each day they will sail from east to west, and each night Pharaoh will return to the east by the river which runs underneath the earth.”
—William Faulkner (1897–1962)
“A government deriving its energy from the will of the society, and operating, by the reason of its measures, on the understanding and interest of the society ... is the government for which philosophy has been searching and humanity been fighting from the most remote ages ... which it is the glory of America to have invented, and her unrivalled happiness to possess.”
—James Madison (1751–1836)