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A comment on Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat than water. Parent comment

Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by mtmcannon on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @03:01PM (#4075535)
What they mean is that when the Zeolite is "heated", then it can be stored indefinitely without "cooling down". If you heat water and put it in a tank, it will lose its heat relatively quickly. The Zeolite stores the energy from heat in (stable) chemical bonds, so it won't lose energy over time.
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by samstave on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @03:38PM (#4075732)
Can you give me some examples of how this can be used?
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by mtmcannon on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @04:20PM (#4075976)
You can heat Zeolite using solar power during the day and release the energy at night. Current thermal energy storage techniques use stuff like molten salt (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thermal_energy_storage), which is a lot harder to work with than pellets.
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by deelowe on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @05:35PM (#4076350)
Yeah, but once you do that, how do you get the water back out? It sounds like this stuff doesn't do that very easily.
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by phn on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @06:45PM (#4076589)
From what I understood, the water comes out when you heat it.
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by julian37 on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @04:03PM (#4075895)
The article gives one example: you could charge them with waste heat at plants and factories, then transport them to homes and offices where (I suppose) they could be used for heating and hot water, at some later point in time.

Sounds more efficient than teleheating via insulated pipes: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/District_heating

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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by rsanchez1 on Wednesday June 06, 2012 @09:43PM (#4077161)
This is a great application. It could be particularly useful in the New England states. Manufacturing could store their waste heat in the zeolite, and resell it to homes and businesses who can use it to heat up during the winter. It could be a major disruption to utility companies.
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by ramchip on Thursday June 07, 2012 @12:21AM (#4077594)
Considering the transport cost and equipment needed, I'm not convinced that would be economically viable...
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Re:Zeolite retains heat indefinitely, absorbs 4x more heat t... by JoeAltmaier on Thursday June 07, 2012 @07:33AM (#4078439)
Water heater in your home. Deliver heat when needed by pouring water on stones, comes out hot. Doesn't have to keep water hot and ready; so probably save 90% of the energy currently leaked away due to Newton cooling (hot water heater cooling off all day while you're at work).
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