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For SpaceNut re #100 and earlier posts
Thank you the links in this set, and particularly for the Devon Island forecast.
By coincidence, I had followed one of the links you provided in recent times, and found a discussion of the ideal band of wind velocity for a wind device.
8 mph was given as too low to be worth bothering with ... that wind speed is too low (as a generalization, I'm sure) to overcome the inertia of a decent sized mill. I would imagine a paper or plastic lawn decoration would move at that speed, but probably just barely.
According to the article, there is an upper limit for practical wind devices, given as about 50 miles per hour. Propellers are designed for wind velocity much higher than that, of course, and I expect they would work just fine in a hurricane, if a hurricane were to be harvested by an enterprising entrepreneur.
Back to your Devon Island wind readings ... those appear to be well within the band suitable for wind harvest.
Complications for location of a wind turbine at that location are comparable to those in the band around Antarctica. The turbine components need to be designed for circumstances in which freezing precipitation is a challenge.
One factor that the presence of water in wind (rain, snow, sleet) might favorably impact a turbine is the driven mass. Air containing water will have a mass greater than without, so the driving force on the blade would be greater than would be the case for a given wind velocity without water content.
Having never had occasion to think about this before, it occurs to me that wind turbine equipment designers must have been thinking about this natural and predictable feature of wind, so there are likely to have been countermeasures explored and put in place.
There is so much going on in this forum, I am finding it difficult to keep up << grin >>
And THIS forum has a restrained level of interaction compared to many !!!
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Sure the large industrial megwatt power generation needs massive size and wind flow to over come the drag of mass for the rotor blade assemblies. Thpugh in incremental steps wqe can not afford the gigantic windmills or the industrial gassification processing equipment to produce fuel by the tanker full a day... we can start smaller and make the units a plug and play assembly of low mass and foot print to make it affordable.
My home average daily kilowatt power needs soar in the winter to 50 kwhr and fall in the summer ( 25 kwhr ) as the electric is used to make heat from less than effective means from cooking to cleaning but if we have a target of power we have a means to design the system for. First step is to solve for what the station needs to be able to man it year round. Next steps are for profit.
Here is a 1kw device https://futurenergy.co.uk/domestic-wind … airforce1/ so long as the wind is blowing 24 hrs you end up with the desired out come from just 1 for the prop type.
this is the verticle type https://www.amazon.com/MAKEMU-Energy-Ve … 758&sr=8-1
So while the gas fuel is important so is the electrical of which batteries are limited for storage but the flow battery design makes the storage tanks the limitation of the ability to store power for later.
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This is for kbd512 if you happen to check Louis' topic here ...
I'd like to try to discover as much as possible about the ocean conditions in International waters around Antarctica.
It occurred to me recently that the US Navy might be a helpful resource. For one thing, the US Navy is already cited in this topic (SpaceNut links) for their support of research to make methane from sea water.
It is entirely possible your connections to the Navy are as expired as are mine to the Army, so I don't expect you'll be able to call up a friend in the Pentagon.
However, it ** is ** possible you might be able to suggest a suitable department to contact.
My Primary interest is in determining where International waters ARE around Antarctica. It is entirely possible that Nation States claim major parts of the regions waters, and Antartica itself would have borders/boundaries within which its protected status would be enforced.
My secondary interest is in trying to verify the preliminary information I've gleaned from weather reports for the region. I'm looking for confirmation the winds in the region of interest are (relatively) consistent throughout the year, and (relatively) robust throughout that time.
Wave conditions are going to be a challenge for sea borne wind tower systems, but based upon the success of the deep ocean towers deployed near Scotland, I'm reasonably confident they can be handled.
Ice, snow and sleet are surely going to be challenges, but surely those concerns have been addressed for at least some wind generator locations.
At any rate, thanks for any hints or tips you may have to advance this little project.
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2019-12-27 16:04:44)
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Not to many cargo ships in the sea lanes are using methane but they are using desiel fuels and they can be made from methane along with other long chain carbon hydrogen products.
the page 2 of the military pdf contains the address and phone number for contact.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_to_liquids
Gas to liquids (GTL) is a refinery process to convert natural gas or other gaseous hydrocarbons into longer-chain hydrocarbons, such as gasoline or diesel fuel. Methane-rich gases are converted into liquid synthetic fuels. Two general strategies exist: (i) direct partial combustion of methane to methanol and (ii) Fischer–Tropsch-like processes that convert carbon monoxide and hydrogen into hydrocarbons. Strategy ii is followed by diverse methods to convert the hydrogen-carbon monoxide mixtures to liquids.
News Release: NREL to Help Convert Methane to Liquid Diesel; Jan. 3, 2013
https://www.eia.gov/energyexplained/uni … lators.php
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For SpaceNut re #104
Thank you for those links. I'll follow up on the contact information you found.
Right now, I'd like to call attention to the last link you provided. It shows that synthetic gas is made by reducing methane to hydrogen, CO2 and CO1.
Louis started this topic with the conjecture that making methane would be helpful to the world economy, since natural gas is so widely used already for heating, for cooking and for a variety of industrial processes.
However, methane would be made from hydrogen extracted from sea water, and from CO2 captured from the atmosphere and from sea water.
Thus, it is apparent that it might prove economically advantages to make synthetic gas from the basic components instead of methane, depending upon market conditions.
As an advantage, synthetic gas would be liquid at room temperatures, and thus much easier to package for shipment to customers.
Edit: It should be noted that current processes for making synthetic gas require expensive equipment and high temperatures. Alternative methods of making synthetic gas are under investigation but (apparently) do not yet exist or are not ready for market use.
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2019-12-27 21:20:12)
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dyi seawater to methane conversion build
tackling the seawater corrosion for the electrolysis electrodes....
Flying fuel author Robert Dorner, a Naval Research Laboratory chemist in Washington DC
https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn … -jet-fuel/
http://www.chem.queensu.ca/people/faculty/Jessop/ Philip Jessop a chemist at Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, Canada.
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For SpaceNut re #106
Thanks for the links in this post, and for the very pertinent guide to "tackling ... corrosion" !!!
Mr. Dorner might be the contact I was hoping for. I hope I have the time and energy and persistence to follow up on these leads.
Right now I'm preparing for volunteer duty at a local organization. They are holding a gathering just before noon, to prepare publicity to thank volunteers. I'll be attending with the additional purpose in mind of seeing if anyone there is interested in working on recruiting new volunteers. We are often short staff for duty which requires five people fully engaged, and the Task Assignment Manager (my title for the coordinator) is constantly on the phone trying to persuade folks to fill in gaps.
I bring this up because the NewMars forum can advance toward goals created by its members, if there are additional high quality volunteers willing to pitch in to help.
I am not shy about calling for volunteers, and I would like to invite you to take another look at the text in the Registration page, about which I posted recently in another topic. That text is of a legal nature, and should not be disturbed. However, I'd very much like to see a paragraph added to reveal the kind of person you would REALLY REALLY like to add to the membership. If you are granted the power to update that page, you can add specific skills sets you're interested in adding to the mix.
At present, it seems to me that the forum is dependent upon random chance to bring in new members of the caliber of Calliban. In a growing organization, the factors that brought in a new member of the caliber of Calliban would be investigated, to see if the success can be replicated.
From my perspective, you have already demonstrated commendable traits for a group leader, by ruthlessly banning those who deserve that fate.
You have the opportunity to build at the top of the scale, while maintaining strict and firm standards for minimal performance at the bottom.
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Volunteerism is a thing which comes and goes with any activity that rallies on the goodness of people to give.
It would be nice if we could tap into some of the business front donation to the cause as well.
As noted its the reactor that is still in flux of design and temperature as well as materials to make the reaction of co and H2 possible to form ch4 and o2 or for the reaction of co2 with h2 to make ch4 and h20.
The site wants pay for the full content
Design of an Air-Cooled Sabatier Reactor for Thermocatalytic Hydrogenation of CO2: Experimental Proof-of-Concept and Model-Based Feasibility Analysis
https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi … 016419.pdf
Compact and Lightweight Sabatier Reactor for Carbon Dioxide Reduction
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For SpaceNut re #108
The page where you found "Design of an Air-Cooled (etc)" offers a free pdf of supporting equations and references.
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/suppl/10.1021/ … si_001.pdf
Edit: The NASA pdf contains advice on a variety of problems/challenges that arise during operation of the Sabatier reactors described.
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2019-12-28 21:20:15)
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Thanks nice find
The Sabatier reaction or Sabatier process was discovered by the French chemist Paul Sabatier and Senderens in 1897.
For as long as we have known about the ability to do the reaction that there is no commercial products out there.
https://www.masterclass.com/articles/wh … r-reaction
https://www.wikiwand.com/en/Sabatier_reaction
https://uwspace.uwaterloo.ca/bitstream/ … sAllowed=y
Design and Simulation of Novel Sabatier Reactors for the Thermocatalytic Conversion of CO2 into Renewable Natural Gas
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For SpaceNut re #110
The masterclass site offers this text:
Synthetic natural gas. The methanation of carbon dioxide is a key stepping stone to the production of synthetic natural gas. The Sabatier process can supplement a power-to-gas method to help create a renewable energy system, alongside wind energy, solar panels that create solar energy, and water energy. The methane created by the Sabatier reaction can be injected directly into a country’s existing gas network. As climate change impacts the planet further, the need for an energy system that is less reliant on fossil fuels will be essential.
I like the way the author of the article condenses so much of the content of this topic into a few words.
Regarding your observation about "no market" for Sabatier ...
There ** is ** a market for the process on the Space Station, and apparently in all space craft going forward.
In other words, it appears that the process is competitive when alternatives cost more.
In the case of the Earth, the "cost" of "free" gas and oil from the ground has been ignored for hundreds of years.
That cost is now coming due.
The cost of using fossil fuels is on its way to becoming unaffordable.
The situation is very similar to using a candle to light up a room. That process works well enough if there is a supply of fresh air and the combustion products are flushed out of the room and replaced with clean air.
That process fails if there is NOT a supply of fresh air, and the contaminating gases cannot be removed.
That is exactly what we humans are facing.
It seems to me that a canny investor would bet heavily on Sabatier as a mechanism for eliminating the use of fossil fuels while maintaining the benefits of the natural gas heating services we humans currently enjoy.
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The iss is recycling to keep life support lifts to the station at a minimum but on a place like mars the life support resupply is coming from the planet as much as possible with the use of all of the types of reactors of chemistry that we can which create oxygen and water for crew to survive.
Nasa partnering company for Human spaceflight
I have what would be mars water as its full of iron, hydrogen sulfides, manganese which makes the water undrinkable and will in time cause the plumbing to need replacing from the mineral build ups. For me having the RGW, sabatier would give drinkable water after the process is complete with the bonus of all of the mineral removal. I had a iron removal filter for the whole house but it caused iron build up as it used backwashing to clean the filter and in time plugged up from buildup.
Supply of co2 could come from the house hold waste stream of burnables, garden or lawn waste from tree leaves, and from a methane fuel heater exhaust recapture for heating.
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For SpaceNut re #112 and two links ...
The Swedish paper is packed with detail about the difficulty of designing, operating and maintaining a power-to-gas facility.
The NASA connection via link contains this;
Precision Combustion, Inc. (www.precision-combustion.com) is a clean energy technology company developing and manufacturing catalytic devices and systems for energy sector applications. To learn more, visit www.precision-combustion.com.
For more information, contact: Tony Anderson
Manager, Marketing and Business Development
Phone: 203-287-3700 ext 290 aanderson@precision-combustion.com
For someone with deep pockets, interested in funding a prototype deep ocean wind-to-methane plant, the company shown above may have the capability to grow to handle a multi-megawatt facility.
Not long ago I read reports that major (ie, global scale) ship building facilities in South Korea are struggling to keep going due to falling demand for super tankers they have been building. The kind of seagoing vessel I am imagining for the wind-to-methane concept would keep them busy for years.
An issue I've been trying to understand better is the tradeoff between pulling power from constant winds in the region of interest, and holding position in the ocean. The least costly procedure would be to simply let the winds blow the vehicle around the continent, and hold station only to the minimum extend needed to stay within the International waters which are available.
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Anchor mass needs to exceed wind force on structure to make it stationary. Now a tanker that is outfitted with the total system would anchor and move to get the most out of wind and co2 resources and since the fuel methane can be made into desiel with a few more processing steps then you have the fuel for the tanker to move with at no cost other than a reduced profit not earn via the conversion to another fuel type. The cooling of the hot gasses can be done with the ocean as the heat sink for the process.
Of course I am reminded of the clean ocean goals of plastics removal and the purchase of products made from the recovered plastics which can help to fund the projects growth after the initial cash stream starts.
https://futuregas.dk/wp-content/uploads … _Final.pdf
http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/di … TEXT01.pdf
Methane Utilisation in Life Support Systems
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/dd53/f … ea98cc.pdf
STUDY OF BIOLOGICAL SABATIER REACTION WITH FLUID DYNAMICS SIMULATIONS
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For SpaceNut re #114
Your idea of setting an anchor is interesting. Please evaluate your idea in light of this report from Wikipedia via Google:
The Drake Passage or Mar de Hoces—Sea of Hoces—is the body of water between South America's Cape Horn, Chile and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica. It connects the southwestern part of the Atlantic Ocean with the southeastern part of the Pacific Ocean and extends into the Southern Ocean. Wikipedia
Mean depth: 11,155′
That would be a long anchor chain, because it would have to be stretched at an angle.
If the angle is 45 degrees, then the chain would be 15556 feet long.
The chain would be just under 3 miles long.
In practice the chain would be a catenary or whatever the curve is called for this situation.
A free floating platform might be less expensive, and there would be no issues of intruding upon someone else's space.
However, your other points seem to hold up pretty well.
One thing to consider is using electric power to operate the propellers, since the presumed power plant would generate 12 megawatts.
Direct application of electricity would seem more efficient than using manufactured fuel.
Thanks for engaging with ideas on this scale!
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Anchoring Suggestion debunked with data...for the drake passage thou I am sure we have other locations that would not be so deep.
Maps are fun
http://www.orangesmile.com/travelguide/ … n-maps.htm
There needs to be other locations in which the stationary tanker would be fine in.
We still have the oil rig platforms to build on.
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For SpaceNut re #116
Thank you for the link to the ** outstanding ** maps of oceans in the vicinity of Antarctica and nearby nation states.
As we discussed earlier, the potential for adaptation of oil rigs for green power production would be a factor in planning by owners. As rigs become less productive, the owners are (I'm presuming) responsible for safe disposal of their properties. If a wind generating plant can be profitably located on a given rig, I would hope the owner would consider the investment that would be required, before committing funds for demolition and disposal.
Here is my follow up on the link you provided the the Naval Research Laboratory.
The purpose of this inquiry is to discover the appropriate department within the US Navy to contact.
The underlying interest is to know the extent of International waters in the vicinity of Antarctica.
Given that Antarctica itself is a restricted region, and that nation states such as Australia, Chile, Argentina and the United Kingdom claim exclusion zones, I would like to know where navigation may be performed without intruding on reserved or claimed areas.
The United Nations may have a department that is tasked with keeping track of the boundaries of ocean regions, but approaching a bureaucracy on that scale is daunting. I have a much higher expectation of a meaningful response from the US Navy, and ** particularly ** from the Research Laboratory.
Edit: I found a map shown at the link below, to illustrate in approximate scale the boundaries claimed by various nations around Antarctica.
https://www.infoplease.com/atlas/antarctica
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2019-12-29 18:43:51)
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I am reminded of the nuclear powered Russian ship that now trolls the north to which that makes for a hub for making fuels for the military...
We have sort of come to far for a Mars Society implementation on Devon Island but could be a bonus for further developing a stable off the shelf product with known capability to which it seems is still in the hands of scientists...
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From another topic, I'd like to copy this post:
For SpaceNut re #92 (in the in-situ topic)
Thank you for the infograph (a term I'm picking up from kbd512) comparing various fuels (liquid and various pressure gas forms).
I followed the Storage Tank link and followed the manufacturer's summary of their progress in meeting DOE goals for hydrogen storage for shipment.
This topic is not the right place for what I am looking for, which is a way of evaluating the use of lifting property of Hydrogen at 1 bar to ship the gas via blimp. The question that occurs to me is what compression is feasible (a) and (b) cost effective for a blimp shipment method.
The pdf from the manufacturer of hydrogen shipping containers estimated 90% throughput for a shipment using their equipment.
Is that a figure that would work for a blimp transport system?
The Earth's winds could be enlisted to move blimp Hydrogen transports from the point of manufacture to a destination, if enough time is available before losses exceed acceptable levels.
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Thats a planetary transportation area and the blimp transport topic has your posted question for others to help work on...
Dirigibles on Mars - A practical means of transport?
The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. The atmospheric pressure on the Martian surface averages 600 pascals (0.087 psi), about 0.6% of Earth's mean sea level pressure of 101.3 kilopascals (14.69 psi)...
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For SpaceNut re #120
Thanks for pointing out the risk of confusion ... The idea under consideration in post #119 is to ship Hydrogen from the Ring-of-Wind around Antarctica to locations further North on Earth. However, following your lead, I asked Mr. Google for assistance.
Google found en.wikipedia.org/wiki/lifting_gas, and there is a paragraph dedicated to Mars. I came away from that paragraph thinking that while a blimp on Mars would have to be carried on a wheeled or tracked vehicle, it might indeed serve as a shipping container for Hydrogen gas manufactured there.
Back on Earth, my interest is in finding the most cost effective way of moving product from the Ring-of-Wind to customers further North on the planet. An option would appear to be to fill a blimp with Hydrogen to just under the bursting point of the envelope, and then to weigh the vehicle down with enough sea water to keep it close to the surface in order to keep the pressure in the vehicle from increasing with altitude. Some Hydrogen will escape as the vehicle travels North, so sea water ballast would be released to maintain a desired altitude.
When the vehicle arrives at a location where the Hydrogen can be economically liquefied for further shipment, the then empty blimp carcass can be returned to the source facility as a seaborne vehicle of some kind. Perhaps the simplest approach is to tow the empty envelope behind a tug boat.
The alternative methods of shipment would require processing at the wind platform. Financial planners would/should be able to compare the costs and benefits of various approaches and find the ones that seem most likely to deliver useful product at the most competitive possible price.
Upon re-reading the post, I realized that the same tug that would tow the empty envelope back to the source platform could be used to tow the loaded blimp North to a processing facility. Chile and Argentina (one one side) and Australia and New Zealand on the other might be attractive locations to place liquefaction facilities.
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2019-12-30 21:54:06)
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On earth the blimp could have fabric solar cells and they could power props to push the blimp from power once aloft or to send power to the lower ship filled with the fuel to make it move for the act of transporting the gas.
Its all about risk to cargo and danger to others...
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With thanks to kbd512, I am adding a paragraph from a recent post in another topic.
SpaceNut,
We don't need or want (my contention) high pressure gaseous H2 for delivery to refueling stations. At room temperature, liquid NH3 pressurized to 114 psi, or thereabouts, contains more H2, by volume, than pure liquid H2. Incidentally, the big rig that delivers the LNH3 to the refueling stations has tires that are most likely pressurized to around 110 psi if they're properly inflated. That's what I meant by manageable pressures.
A plant located in the Ring-of-Wind has plenty of power available, plenty of water available, plenty of CO2 available (from atmosphere and ocean), and plenty of Nitrogen available from the atmosphere.
Financial planners will be looking at opportunities for products to meet the demands of various customers, means of production, and means of delivery.
In post #122 above, SpaceNut has contributed a vision of a solar powered dirigible which would tow a transport barge on the surface of the ocean below.
The dirigible of SpaceNut would (I gather) NOT be used to transport product itself.
In contrast, the blimp envisioned in #121 would be designed for transport of hydrogen so as to get the product to a facility on land where it could be processed further.
If the decision is made to prepare ammonia as kbd512 suggests, then a submarine would be an interesting option for transport of the product to land based facilities. Drag of movement through water could be reduced by using submarine design lore achieved over many decades of submarine operation for military purposes.
However, it should be noted that there is a significant cost to submarine transport:
Secret Nuclear Redesign Will Keep U.S. Subs Running ...
https://www.wired.com › 2013/01 › secret-sub-design
Jan 17, 2013 - Currently anywhere from 75 to 80 percent of the power from a nuclear submarine is devoted to driving the ship through the water. Extra power could be routed to other systems like sonars and potentially unmanned underwater vehicles.
That quote is a reminder that movement through the air is potentially less energy consuming than is movement through water above or below the surface.
Google provides a number of links for investigating costs of shipping product by sea.
An example search is: how much fuel is consumed moving a cargo vessel
The citations provided include discussion of the highly polluting nature of bunker oil, and its extensive use in 2019 on Earth.
Vessels intended to carry product from the Ring-of-Wind would (presumably) consume energy generated by the wind facilities, so their contribution to global pollution would net to zero. However, planners would be looking for ways to minimize shipping costs, so air transport is likely to receive a lot of attention.
A hydrogen blimp could carry non-lifting gas or liquids along with sea water ballast. As mentioned in earlier post(s), sea water would be released to maintain vehicle altitude.
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Last edited by tahanson43206 (2019-12-31 08:06:13)
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Changing how and from what we collect co2 from is as important as the energy to which we need to make the conversion happen.
Capturing CO2 from trucks and reducing their emissions by 90 percent
Europe, transport is responsible for nearly 30% of the total CO2 emissions, of which 72% comes from road transportation*.
Researchers at EPFL have now come up with a novel solution: capturing CO2 directly in the trucks' exhaust system and liquefying it in a box on the vehicle's roof. The liquid CO2 is then delivered to a service station, where it is turned into conventional fuel using renewable energy.First, the vehicle's flue gases in the exhaust pipe are cooled down and the water is separated from the gases. CO2 is isolated from the other gases (nitrogen and oxygen) with a temperature swing adsorption system, using metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) adsorbent, which are specially designed to absorb CO2.
The whole process takes place within a capsule measuring 2 m x 0.9 m x 1.2 m, placed above the driver's cabin. "The weight of the capsule and the tank is only 7% of the vehicle's payload," adds Marechal. "The process itself uses little energy, because all of its stages have been optimized."
The researchers' calculations show that a truck using 1 kg of conventional fuel could produce 3kg of liquid CO2, and that the conversion does not involve any energy penalty.
Only 10% of the CO2 emissions cannot be recycled, and the researchers propose to offset that using biomass.
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Source of power from mother nature... Windiest states in America
mean wind speeds at 328 feet (100 meters) above sea level for the 10% windiest areas of each state
mean wind speed figures are reported here in miles per hour, the wind power density figures are reported in watts per meter squared (W/m^2) because that is the conventional measuring unit and refers to the quantity of electric power that may be generated by wind.
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