This man is the crazy fun science teacher we all should have had in school.

Imagine having a science teacher like Mr Robert, everybody would lovd science, there won't be a dull day.

I don't often comment, but this is really interesting. The pure simplicity of it, combined with reusability and safety. Just wow. Would love to see more of this concept

There is a synthetically produced zeolite clay material called a molecular sieve. These have pores in the material that adsorb water (and other chemicals depending on the diameter of the pores) which produce intense heat when exposed to water. They are used as desiccants to create very dry environments and adsorb more water faster than silica gels, and they are reusable. You can activate them by drying them with a heat source like a rocket stove for a few hours then store them in a dry enclosure until they are needed.

I love your excitement. This is a really neat demonstration of the Peltier effect

If I'm not mistaken, the heat is produced when the clay is turned into its hydrous state, meaning you would need to do more than just let it dry out to remove the water again, as it's chemically bonding with the clay. You would need to heat it up in an oven at high temperatures, using significantly more energy than was produced.

Our man is saving the world by giving us ideas. Past 4 videos have been bangers on ideas for new home construction.

I can't get over this. I simply must learn how this works at the molecular level

An interesting use of materials like zeolite is as thermal stabilization: The water and clay are kept in a closed container made of something which transports heat well. When it's hot outside the container, that heat goes into evaporating the water, but when it's cold enough for the water to condensate, the container heats up. But for that use, I'd probably be looking at ferrosulphate, since the tipping point for that is at some 60C or so, a temperature you can quite often reach on a sunny rooftop.

Cool video Rob The challenge with Seebeck effect generation and Peltier devices is to keep the cool side cool. Apart from the heat source which the clay and water provides you probably need a cold indefinite heat sink like flowing water in a river or the ocean for it to be viable. I am facinated by Peltier devices, the solid state part is so cool. Btw the Voyager space probes are powered by the Seebeck effect and they've been running for 60 years using radioactive material as the heat source and space as the heatsink. If only we had left over radioactive material which dissipates heat and an Ocean.....

Just found this channel and I'm trilled. This guy is a gem.

I rewatched from the two min mark about four times to see what I had missed. Had to google it. First result was a pdf titled: "On the driving force of cation exchange in clays" By Rotenberg, Morel, et al. Apparently there is a Na+ Cs+ exchange during the hydration/dehydration processes.

Very interesting video! Seems to me, it would be a great way to store "heat" for the winter. You just have logs of them outside in the summer "drying", and in the winter, just add water. Once done, you put them outside to dry again.

I for one am impressed by your attire. Quite classy I should say, good on you old boy good on you!

This is one of those videos that blows me away and captures my interest tenfold. I would love to see this on a larger scale with output numbers.

Neat. I'm glad for the comments though, helping to explain it's not quite as simple as it would seem.

So many people are obsessed with free-energy/perpetual-motion, as if its some game changer... when all along all we need to do is realize how abundant the energy in nature is already.

As a potter I am fascinated by the battery but mostly, I love your delight.

Astounding! I'd never heard of anything like this! Complete simplicity itself, abundantly refreshable, inert ingredients, safe, non-toxic, non-corrosive, no chemical reactions or by-products, ... yet an energy producer! What an eye-opener! It's energizing just to watch!

Love it. Id been studying peltier devices in order to create cooling devices but realized theyre more useful for electric generation but most articles claimed it wasnt efficient. But Im glad theres great minds like you challenging misinformation. It may not be enough to run a power station by itself but here in the altar desert I can assure you the hot and cold differences make a big difference. specially as a starting point for a cascading system or even an array of devices. Im on the hunt for peltier devices among other projects.

Thank you for sharing! This is simple enough for me to do with my child! I have been trying to find fun little things to show them

this guy is like a genius amazing every video he baffles me

Why have I never heard of this!!! I feel as though I've been sitting on a gold mine all these years and didn't know it lol Thanks for sharing Robert!

I am from Chattanooga, Tennessee and I must say that I absolutely loved your video. Great job!! It's always amazed me how some people are blessed and truly can make big things happen from the plain ordinary. Well, as you've proven, it's not so ordinary, until a brilliant mind such as yours comes on scene. Thank you very much!!!!

My man. You are awesome. Your love for science is contagious my brother. Thank you

It can be used as a bladless wind generator by covering a cloth with it. When it dryes in the air you get what is essentially a type of fuel. Great job Robert, keep up the good work!

Brilliant. Harnessing the electricity from tapping into the field pressure between hot and cold. 🤔💭💭💭. Tapping into a thunderstorm and controlling the lightning ( using the energy of dielectric before the discharge) harness lightning and feed it to a storage battery 🔋. 👍

Thank you Robert!! Simplicity and safety are not to be underestimated!! Gratefully Appreciated!!

The information in this video is second only to Robert's enthusiasm. Fantastic video!

This man never fails to deliver and amaze. Well done sir!

As soon as the video started I thought... "Wow! This guy would make a great Doctor Who!!!!" 😃 Interesting stuff!

Another awesome video, as always. Would you ever consider showing how to actually make the wire-based pad?

That is quite amazing I didn’t realise something like clay could be used in that way. Fascinating

Hi, thank you Robert for this information, your videos are just amazing to watch, so many ideas spring to mind, Looking forward to the next one already! I think there is going to be a lot of people experimenting with this stuff now! Take care and have a great day!

Would love to see some everyday use-cases/reliable ways to take advantage of this along with how to efficiently source all required components

I always try and like your videos half way through watching and then i realise ive already liked it before ive even watched it. I appreciate all the content and info. Thank you

Like a Sterling engine without moving parts… that’s pretty cool 👍

I love your enthusiasm and love all your content. Super informative as usual! 🙏

I’m going to put my clay in a shallow box behind my solar panel, daylight solar and heat to dry the clay then add a splash of water for night time power.

What exactly is the mechanism at work? Is it chemical or physical? How many times can this process be repeated? Does the power output vary over cycles? Could the water be recaptured when drying used again in a closed cell?

I wish you had been my lecturer when I was studying engineering.

Thats fascinating. I could see using that as a back up to solar on rainy days, using it to offset the energy loss and then just letting the sun dry it out once the rain is over so you can offset the dip in energy.

Why do I feel you could single handedly revive the Dr Who franchise? 👍

I so like your laughs when getting fascinated about amazements of science and it's applications in real life, so good, please keep going, you are great 😊😊👍🏻👍🏻👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻🌹

I am amazed. Thank you for showing.

Loving the Doctor Who vibes on your walkabout videos recently, Robert.

I thought it was an 80's episode of Dr.Who at first :-) Keep up the great work!

Your passion for what you do is inspiring and warming.

His guys enthusiasm for clay is hilarious..... 😂😂

I wonder what result Rob would get if he insulated the heating container. What would be more interesting would be to get some numbers from the experiment; -starting weight of zeolite, -thermocouple in the mixture and a plot of time vs temp to quantify how much and for how long heat is produced -meter to measure the voltage/amperage produced (maybe also over the time that heat is produced to quantify how much is produced)

I liked this for two reasons: number one, clay; and number two, water. :) Seriously, the two reasons were the science was interesting and incredibly useful, and the presentation was clear and enthusiastic. I couldn't help but smile as you laughed to yourself about the subject matter. (Increasingly, I find myself drawn to videos like this more for the utility than for my scientific curiosity. I truly hope I never need to use this, but I am grateful for the knowledge in case I do. Thanks!)

Thank you. I do have to share with you that do not like when channels have additional guidelines to post. It’s already the riechsTube without your additional rules. Cheers.

I would think a Sterling engine would be a lot more efficient than a Peltier junction when trying to extract usable energy from a heat difference. Peltier junctions also require complex PN junctions (aka silicon processing) that might require much higher technology than a Stirling engine. Have you tried using a Stirling engine with this?

There is zeolite in our dish washer, I never really looked much into it but I was curious, this is quite impressive how much heat it can output ..of course adding a passive heatsink on the cool side would improve the power a bit aswell, which is very easy to do, also I remember luke made a thermal paste with graphene, it looked like it was performing pretty good, any update on that ? this could be useful for that device

Will save this idea for heating up dinner or keeping myself warm.

Wow, fantastic. Great to have you on the job. Learning constantly from your own enthusiasm for testing and probing.

I used to live a few miles from a ghost town in northern peninsular Florida called Edgar. All that’s left is the post office and mining facilities, because underneath the site of the town is a huge deposit of kaolin, a type known as Edgar Plastic Kaolin.

Makes me think of the great pyramids having a hot and cold side as well as the clay mixture that were cast so tightly into blocks. I mean its the perfect angle for the dangle !

Wouldn't this make a fun Science Fair project?! Very, very cool, haha! (I thought this was going to be about the Baghdad Battery...nope, even better.)

How cool, you really do learn something new every day. Great video, thank you, 👍👍👍👊✌️💚🌍.

What's the voltage and current produced from your setup there? Also, could you use calcium chloride to produce the same effect? Adding water to calcium chloride(the stuff used to melt snow) creates an exothermal reaction as well, and doesn't take the large amount of energy to dry as this would.

This is magic, just the fact that the water boiled the instant it came in contact with the clay is pure wizardry to me AND IT GENERATES ELECTRICITY. WHAT!?!

Awesome and the Peltier device is made of two different ceramics also. One for the outer case and the inner ones that make power. So, three different ceramics and the crystals inside the device are two slightly different types. I don't know much about them, but I think there is a P and an N type. Does anyone know how to make the Peltier ceramics? Turn the sound up at 4:05 when the Zeolite clay and water start bubbling, it sounds like applause. Well-deserved too Rob. Thank you so much for this video :) You rock Rob!

Water and clay are very abundant clean energy 🙂

Amazing! So you can generate electricity twice from rain water, once from the gravitational pull and again from dumping it in clay.

This is both primative and futuristic! Amazing!

That’s insane. In all the right ways. But dude! For real? I want to build one now.

nature & human genius allways been perfect combo. anyway, energy for ppl isnt a scientific topic, but a politic one. (R.I.P. Thorium reactor). thx for sharing and seeding common sense

Okay beautiful dirt at work! Thanks Rob! 🥸/Mikael

Wonderful presentation.

This is invaluable for anyone looking to diversify their Prepping skills. Thank you so much! (Dave W / AZ-USA)

Great explanation Robert, whilst you were explaining it I was thinking large clay filled tubes with a fine mesh on the bottom to allow water to drain slowly and fed by a header tank of rain water.

Plaster gets warm when wet so this is very practical for small experiments

This is EXACTLY what I was "researching" yesterday after watching your video. You should make a video about "Seebeck effect". It's very relevant

Love the way you think Robert!

The amount of clay you would need for a single day's power supply vs. Renewability is probably not viable, but it could be part of a larger power cycle using different means of electricity production. Thank you for this!

thanks robert i was thinking the same after you last video cheers for the demo

When I was in college (first year), I was bored in my chemistry class (was going for vet-med). My instructor knew that I shouldn't be in that class and that the test to test out was stupid and asinine. So we had a very huge mutual respect. One day, she was giving her lecture and I went over to the lab table, ignoring the lecture and started running water. I saw her peering at me as she lectured. I put on a glove and grabbed a tiny piece of potassium and a scalpel. Once the water was at an acceptable level, I turned it off and shaved off a small piece of potassium and tossed it in the water. Results happened. And without skipping a beat in her lecture, the prof said, "And that is why we don't throw potassium into water..." and then just continued with her lecture. I got a fun smirk from her and needless to say, aced the class. I say that to say this: This dude reminds me a lot of her. Excitement over what could otherwise be considered mundane science. But it's not. It's fascinating... even if we still understand it fully, it's god damned fascinating.

The hydrated zeolite can't just be "dried out", the water needs to be driven off with heat above that of ambient. Maybe a solar oven would work

There are heat storage systems that work with this principle! Attended a lecture about it just these days :)

Neato just another trick to use down the line to impress the grandkids during a zombie apocalypse...♡ much thanks

Awesome. When the heat difference runs out, Rotate dry clay through the battery and add water again. I wi der how long it would take the used clay to dry out... I guess it would depend on the humidity conditions....

And technically, its reversible at the same time you are recharging it, if you can find a cheap way to develop a vacuum in the clay chamber.

So you've made a thermal battery with a solar thermal panel you could remove koisture and at night the clay could absorb water from the air. Give you a small voltage. During the day heat night generate power.

I did enjoy the video! You are quite jovial. Thank you!

Wow, that's amazing! Wish I had time to play around with these concepts

This is a basic thermoelectric generator. You can absolutely wire multiple wafers in series or parallel to get a desired output. There is no wear or tear on the thermoelectric modules over time, and it is emission less. The only downside is power output under load. You need a good amount to be able to charge a cell phone using this method. Hes also using a cheap chinese one, you can buy really nice ones:)

So cool ☺ To regenerate the zeolite is done with applying the heat to around 200 to 300 deg C

I built a battery out of saltwater, a clay pipe, a plastic bucket a copper rod, some burnt copper wire, an Iron rod and some wind chimes. Last but not least a bunch of magnets. I was able to use the oscillator(wind chimes) to generate a current and fill the junk capacitor to 50% charge. I basically used the chimes, iron rod and magnets as a overwound giant pickup and the rest i made a battery to hold the charge produced. Electricity is easy... it's flowing on the ground and in the air, it's free.

That’s amaZing. That reminds me of the video where a guy turns a washing machine that’s junk into a machine that makes electricity by sitting in a creek. It’s like the world would be much better off using old washing machines in remote places or this freaking awesome clay battery. It’s truly renewable without massive pollution being created or if you can upcycle something. The clay battery probably isn’t promoted by government because it’s probably not expensive enough or polluting enough etc. it’s like the renewable energy movement is truly about another way for the US to offshore inflation or move trillions more abroad keeping the down down and then importing commodities etc.

So much _bloody politics_ around energy production and you just _proved_ to us it's basically _free, clean and renewable forever!_ And so darn _easy_ to *make* at any _scale!_ *Unbelievable!* *WOW!*

Technically, this isn't actually a battery, but a generator. Batteries directly convert chemical energy to electricity (and vice-versa). This is going through a separate step of converting chemical energy to heat, and then using that heat to generate electricity (similar in some ways to how a steam engine or nuclear power plant works, just using the stored chemical energy in the dry clay for a power source instead). One of the reasons the distinction is important is because this process also makes it much much less efficient than a typical battery would be... (But it is still a kinda neat effect)

oooooooooooh A clay battery! that is so amazing, i bet i could make a automatic recharger for it that just dries it out and dthe adds more water!

There is more clay in the world than at any other time -- and the amount grows every day. That's because clay is formed by weathering of rocks. Of course, it doesn't all have the same properties. But the more uses for clay we can find, the better. It truly is a "renewable resource."

This is very good. Along with your previous video on solar cooling. I wonder how many other chemical reactions are completely reversible like this. It seems pretty special though. When you add water to the clay, does it actually become some other compound, or is it just hot, wet clay?

0:09 The green suit made me think this cat was gonna start talking about his Lucky Charms.

This video made me think of the old farm truck video being converted to burn organic matter running on hay to cow pies. There’s some awesome science that can really help poor people that really could use help tk reduce inflation that’s hurting their standard of living.

Terrific. You would have made a wonderful Dr.Who.

Very interesting - could use sunshine and rain to charge and activate it! Or run a sterling engine.

That's a great video, Rob, thanks! It's got me thinking about using the wet zeolite and cooling it off in the wind and/or sunlight to generate a cold side for the Peltier (I saw you do that in an earlier video). It could be mounted on the roof in a weather-vane type arrangement to get the best wind exposure. This could then be used alternately from hot to cold and cold to hot. The thing is that the Peltier doesn't need to be swapped and the zeolite doesn't either. The only difference is exposing one side to wind and the other to water, then switch sides and do it all over again. There's no free lunch, so we'd need a constant (small) supply of water and the Peltier isn't very efficient, but as a proof of concept that would be very good. We could always go with a Stirling engine for better efficiency and greater wattage.