aspqrz said:... It has a Fuel Processor which, allegedly, allows it to produce its own fuel from seawater ... producing 20 times its volume in 24 hours, with a volume sufficient to produce 30m3 (fuel bunkerage is 21.6m3).
Apart from the problem that this makes it a perpetual motion machine, see the real problem?
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Hi,
I believe that the statement above is not correct. In order for the vessel to be a perpetual motion machine it would have to output a power greater than or equal to the power input into it, which is not the case here.
Although the ship only has to expend a small amount of energy to collect & purify the fuel & to convert the fuel's energy in the ship's power plant, this doesn't mean that you are getting more energy out than you put in because its really a matter of how much energy you are getting out of what is stored in the fuel.
A real world analogy that might help clarify this is a "campfire".
Say for instance you are camping & you want to build a fire.
-1st you would probably expend a small amount of energy gathering fuel in the form of twigs, branches, & kindling
-next you may purify your fuel by removing leaves & wet bark, etc expending a small amount more of energy
-next you would probably expend a small amount more of energy stacking this fuel (wood etc) into a mound for use as a campfire (ie transferring the fuel to the power plant)
-finally by applying a small amount of additional energy, in terms of a spark, you can then initiate a reaction that causes the stored energy in the fuel to be converted into thermal energy, which can be used to boil water, cook food, or provide warmth & light
In the end then you end up expending only a small amount of energy to extract the relatively large amount of stored energy in the fuel (wood) into useful energy or power.
However, it is not a perpetual motion or energy device because the energy output from the fire is less than the potential energy stowed in the fuel (wood) regardless of how much (or little) energy was expended collecting purifying it etc.
Regards
PF