Transmat World: hydrogen

Showing posts with label hydrogen. Show all posts

Sunday, December 5, 2021

Quit Obsessing About Climate Change. What You Do or Don’t Do No Longer Matters.

by Glen Hendrix

Quit worrying about going vegan, or recycling, or riding a bicycle to work, or buying a Tesla instead of that Ford F-650 pickup you’ve always wanted in order to save the planet. You’re off the hook. It’s out of your hands. You can do these things if it makes you feel better, but they are not going to change the big picture. Whatever you do does not matter. Unless you are a head of state, king, president, prime minister, or other grand poobah, it is above your pay grade. If you are able to vote for people of power, that is what is left for you to do. Other than that …. nothing.

According to scientists, the only way to keep the planet’s temperature from increasing 2.7 degrees Fahrenheit is to immediately phase out all fossil fuel infrastructure and devices. As soon as existing coal, oil, or gas plants reach their engineered lifespans, instead of refurbishing we must shut them down. If we don’t, the estimates for increasing temperatures start going up. At 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit, positive feedback loops of evaporating Arctic methane could kick in. Methane is 21 times better at warming the atmosphere than CO2. The warmer temps evaporate the methane. The methane makes the atmosphere warmer. It evaporates more methane …. you get the picture.

I don’t want to be a Donny Downer or a Cassandra but how likely do you think shutting down the fossil fuel industry is? The industry has just invested billions upon billions on natural gas liquefaction plants to easily transport this fuel around the world. They are not giving that up without a tooth and nail, knock down drag out; and they have the money to do it. There are 25 countries whose oil percentage of exports range from Malaysia’s 22.3% to Iraq’s 99.8%. The trucking, railways, shipping, and airline industries would have to be completely transformed to electric or hydrogen propulsion. They will be as reluctant as oil and gas to give it up. All 195 countries would require state-ordained laws banning the use of fossil fuels entirely. There are still vast numbers of people in Africa that gather around campfires and stoves burning wood or coal just like they did thousands of years ago. What are they going to use?

This is the most pivotal point in the history of man. We only get one shot at this. If we blow it, we won’t get a comparable situation for millions of years, if ever. If mankind does have a world-wide civilization by then, we will have forgotten all of this — this choice we had. Save the planet or just get along and ignore it until it is too late. Scientists are saying our planet is doomed and all I hear on the news is everything but that. We are a society in denial, trying to collectively whistle past the graveyard. Our weather men won’t even talk about it on the local news. It might be construed as political. It might upset people. We are so polite and civilized in our denouement.

Since it is off our individual shoulders now, maybe we should give more thought about how we tell our children what’s happening and what to expect in the future. Hopefully, they won’t kick you in the shins when they finally understand what you are talking about. How do we look someone like Greta Thunberg in the face and tell her we screwed up in the worst possible way. This Swedish teen will probably spit in your eye and tell you to fuck off and keep riding that bike to work. She is up for a Nobel Prize for her admonitions to do something about climate change. In reality, she should be voted Queen of the World, because that is exactly what is needed right now; some central, charismatic figure with smarts and determination to do what is right, what is required.

It is not really our fault. Besides being stupid and greedy, we are genetically handicapped to deal with this situation. We simply don’t live long enough to plan ahead. By “planning ahead” I don’t mean decades. I mean centuries. The reason is that people with money and power, the people with the means to do something, just don’t care. They would have to give up some of that money and power to change things. They figure they won’t be around to suffer the consequences of climate change anyway, so they just don’t give a damn. It would require Biblically long lifetimes to plan ahead for the human race. For now and the near future we can, at most, hope to live to a hundred, not the 969 years of Methuselah. If you were going to be around for the consequence of your actions or inaction for as long as he was, you would care.

Our one ray of hope is artificial intelligence. Pundits say a generalized AI, the singularity, will be here within 20 years. It will have the lifetime and the smarts to rationally plan ahead for a viable future for the Earth. Maybe, by the grace of God, it will take over and guide the human race rationally into the future instead of selling us as cheap, world-wrecking slaves to the first aliens that drop by.

So tell your children you are sorry for what is going on with the climate, but it’s not their fault or yours. Tell them some bad people made it too hard to do anything until it was too late. Tell them you will vote for people that might help with the problem. Maybe if we elect the right leaders, and they do the right things there is still time. Tell them to study science and engineering so that someday they might help with a solution or figure out adaptations to deal with it. Or you can put that whole talk off for later. I won’t blame you. You are only human.

Read more great articles on this blog and on Medium.

Friday, March 22, 2019

Why the Oceans Will Be Humanity’s Life Raft

Photo by Giga Khurtsilava on Unsplash

It’s the year 2100. Nobody lives near the coast. Too dangerous. Hurricane Xena took out Miami in 2085. Most coastal cities have been ravaged. Besides, the land has been soaked with seawater so many times, it won’t grow but the hardiest saline-loving plants. Ports are the only inhabited portions of coastline. Ports are specially designed to shelter people and vessels. Ports are very expensive nowadays. The water is always rising, claiming more land. People build sturdy houses on high ground away from the coast. Many build in the ground on high ground, living in basement caves. The good thing about the coast is it doesn’t stink as much now as when the great aquatic die-offs were taking place.

The political will wasn’t there to fight climate change until the middle of the century, when truly scary things begin to happen. People started living in their vehicles to escape locally violent winds, floods, heat, and snowstorms. Insects and wild animals became rare. Dead things mummified instead of rotting to a skeleton. People don’t even wonder about that now. Hurricane names went through the alphabet every year with half being Cat 4 or better. The weather alternated between violent storms and extended drought. The Southwestern United States went five years without a drop of rain. Annual rainfall in the northeast increased to over 100 inches per year. Crops failed. Many died of starvation. A chunk of methane hydrate the size of Manhattan surfaced off the coast of San Francisco. Lightning set it ablaze, and it burned for six years. Scientists say this is fortunate. The evaporating methane would have been worse for the atmosphere than its products of combustion.

The nations of Earth finally came together in 2050 to pass laws. Fossil fuel usage is now rare. Wind, hydro, biomass, wave, solar, nuclear fission and fusion are what power everything. All vehicles, including planes, run on hydrogen made by hydrolysis of water. Population growth is under control. Weather related deaths have leveled off to two billion since 2050. In 2100, the world’s population is only eight billion, not the eleven billion projected in the early part of the 21st century.

The average global temperature has started to stabilize as huge CO2 sequestration plants suck it from the air and turn it into plastic and lubricating oils. The seas are still warm and acidic with few creatures sturdy enough to survive the low oxygen levels. Yet, this is where the majority of humans now live - on the vast oceans. You see, it is only the top 200 meter layer of the oceans that is warm. The next layer is the 1000 meter thermocline which separates the surface ocean from the deep ocean. The deep ocean represents 80-90 percent of the oceans’ volume and is frigidly cold. While the surface layer takes about 100 years to mix temperatures, the deep ocean works on a longer timeline - 1,000 to 100,000 years. The cold melt from those disappearing glaciers and arctic ice over the past 150 years seeped to the bottom of the ocean becoming part of this vast reservoir of coolness not thought about until it was absolutely necessary.

Mankind retreated to the sea. With a pipe stuck 1200 meters into the ocean, one can draw out 32-45 degree Fahrenheit water. Run it through a heat exchanger along with ambient air and cold, pure condensate comes pouring out, dripping off the coils. It is used for drinking, bathing, growing crops, and trade with the people who still live on land. The cold, dry air gushing out of that same heat exchanger is used for refrigeration and air conditioning. The best thing, though, is the still cool, oxygenated, nutrient dense sea water that floods the insulated fish tanks where the precious sea creatures saved from the dying oceans thrive. Some are grown for food, but many simply find sanctuary from the warm death on the other side of their tank wall. As cool ocean water warms, it is released into the ocean. Still cooler than the ambient water, it helps to bring down the temperature of the world's oceans.

Moveable, manmade islands proliferated and became nations. They number in the thousands now from the tiny Gilligan's with a population of seven to the huge New Miami with a population of 150,000. Some islands are engineered for safety, efficiency, and longevity. Some are cobbled together from sea barges and yachts. Ocean liners and merchant vessels sometimes form the nucleus. Even aircraft carriers and other military ships form parts of the hundreds of island nations that dot the seas. Large vessels make good bases for the big wind turbines that stretch into the sky above the islands. It is hard to pick out individual vessels as most everything is covered in dense vegetation. Flashes of light reflected from windows dispersed through the greenery are the only indication of dwellings underneath the plant growth.

Floating solar farms surround the islands with channels through them, accessing the ports near the center of the islands. From these same ports, deep sea drones launch to the bottom of the ocean, looking for wrecks and mineral treasures and to monitor the temperature and condition of the most precious commodity left to humanity - the ocean deep’s cold-water refuge from the heat. We can only hope that it lasts until the Earth is healed.

There May Be a Quadrillion Dollars Lying About on the Moon

Mining That First Asteroid - Manned Mission or AI?

A Convergence of Technologies Will Create a New Age of Space Exploration

Steampunk Meets Star Wars: A Harrowing Micro-Tale of Future Spacefarers

The Space Habitat Revisited and Revised

Are Seeds of Conflict Brewing Over the Moon?

Just What Are NASA’s Plans Under Trump

Thruster On a Chip: An Alternative Rocket Science That Could Revolutionize Space Travel

Oumuamua: Alien Probe or Asteroid? It Could Be Both

Cryptocurrency Is Going Into Space

Going Back To the Moon Is Not Just for Governments Anymore

Why It Is a Certainty We Will Become a Space-Based Civilization

Asteroid Mining - How to Pick the Right Asteroid

Recycling Asteroids For Fun and Profit

Taking the 06-03-25 Asteroid Shuttle to Mars - An Alternative to Planned Mars Missions

A Heavy Metal, Cannibalistic Asteroid Propulsion System

Sticking the Landing On Your Billion Dollar Asteroid

Artificial Intelligence and Asteroid Mining Will Be a (Necessary) Match Made In the Heavens

The Weapon of Mass Destruction Nobody Is Talking About

How We Can Diminish the Possibility of Water Wars

There's An Asteroid Out There With All of Our Names On It

What Will Be the Most Common Currency In a Future Space-Based Society?

Workers In Space Will Live In Igloos

How We Will Get Asteroid Material Back To Earth

The Military Values High Ground - Space Is the Highest

Very Large Scale 3D Printing In Space

Energy and Space; Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum

China’s Strategy for the Future Is Scary Smart

We Will Live on the Moon: the How and Why

Monday, March 4, 2019

What Will the Post Fusion World Look Like?

Photo by Drew McKechnie on Unsplash

Fusion energy technology may happen very soon now - possibly a decade or two. The advantages are an abundant fuel source that will last a million years, no CO2 emissions, very efficient (4 million times that of burning coal), no long term radiation risk, and no chance of a meltdown. We would hope it is cheaper. That will be determined by how much the plants cost and their lifespan and maintenance.

Let’s assume the promise of cheap energy is true, and it is equably distributed. What will it mean to our society? Let’s look back at the last occurrence of cheap energy available to the world in abundance. This was when oil was being discovered all over the world. It gushed from the ground in such quantity, it was arbitrarily assigned an initial value of $2 per barrel. It spurred the development of the internal combustion engine to power cars, trains, ships, and planes. That, in turn, created our modern world and advanced our standard of living by leaps and bounds.

So, would cheap electrical energy simply replace all combustion engine power with electric motors? No. It would not. For cars and planes and ships, there would have to be batteries involved. We are already seeing rare earth elements and other material for battery production become a bottleneck in the supply chain, and we haven’t even begun to switch over to electric.

Unless there is a major breakthrough in battery technology, we will go to a hydrogen economy. The cheap electricity will be used in hydrolysis to separate hydrogen and oxygen. There are two ways hydrogen can then be used.

1. We will burn the hydrogen in combustion engines. The products of that production are water and trace amounts of nitrogen oxides. Even with major breakthroughs in battery technology, hydrogen might be cheaper because it involves only high-pressure tanks. These can be made from carbon fiber and hold thousands of pounds of pressure safely.

2. The other option is to run the hydrogen through a fuel cell. This generates electricity that turns the motor. It is more efficient than a combustion engine running hydrogen, but it generates a lot of heat and is heavy. These last two qualifiers may prevent the use in airplanes, one of our worst CO2 producers.

Whichever way we decide to use the cheap electricity produced by nuclear fusion, it will be a big plus for the world economy, not to mention the environment. Production costs will go down so that wages will go further. Quality of life will rise. Sunshine, lollipops, and rainbows everywhere! Okay, maybe not that great. Clean drinking water and a calamity free food supply for eight billion will be the next hurdles. Let’s hope someone has a tech trick up their sleeve for those as well.