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Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

ckrapu.github.io

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Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#61

Post by schiffern »

ckrapu wrote: post #55
schiffern wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Beyond that gap time period, I was thinking more about longer-term storage and heat transfer. What happens over the second summer? Grain piles have free drainage so we don't expect saturation, but if water freely drains through this system it seems problematic.

The spring-summer timeframe is the biggest issue to deal with here. I think that this design would have to have a sacrificial layer with decomposing, anoxic material which degrades during the warmer months. Perhaps it could be mitigated with various expedients to decrease the ambient temperature like flooding the surrounding landscape or putting a shade over the pile. This scheme only makes sense if the amount of bio…

With intentionally wet hay (or similar) I would start worrying about spontaneous combustion.

https://news.okstate.edu/articles/agriculture/2020/stotts_br...

https://www.beefmagazine.com/livestock-management/-what-are-...

Perhaps worthwhile to annually top with a cover membrane (possibly bioplastic) to control moisture? Maybe even two layers (bottom airtight and top vapor permeable), sandwiching the dry "insulation" to avoid moisture ingress from both sides. If the area-to-volume ratio is so favorable the cost might be managed.

Thank you, very interesting proposal and discussion. I'm all for it!

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#62

Post by amelius »

seu wrote: post #24

Nice idea, but the climate crisis is not solved with technology (we already know and have everything we need) but by politics and changing our consumption habits.

Yes, if we just banned ads I suspect that would already greatly affect our consumption.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#64

Post by Gibbon1 »

pxeger1 wrote: post #2

What are you gonna do about all the nitrogen etc which the plants need? Are there good ways to reextract these nutrients from dead plant material without releasing loads of carbon at the same time?

I had a very short back and forth with someone here. One thing makes you wonder about another.

You calculate the cost of manufacturing hydrogen from water to feed into a the Haber-Bosch process to produce ammonia. All you are doing is replacing the existing steam reformer with an electrolysis plant.

But the what if is what if you can take a further step and directly create amino acids instead of ammonia. You go why do that. The answer is an acre of solar panels produces 25-50 times more energy than corn.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#65

Post by pavon »

xbmcuser wrote: post #19

This year ie 2024 world will add more solar power than the total consumption growth. This is despite the tariffs and sanctions on Chinese panels and batteries. I think the world is at the cusp of dramatic change that would come faster if not for western countries trying to protect their industries. I think adding more renewables as fast as possible specially solar is the best option as this will make essentially ener…

In the US, the rate at which we install utility scale solar and wind is currently limited by how quickly we can upgrade the grid to support it, with interconnect wait lists taking over 5 years in some areas[1]. Lifting tariffs wouldn't speed things up without fixing that first.

[1] https://emp.lbl.gov/news/grid-connection-backlog-grows-30-20...

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#66

Post by Taniwha »

lupire wrote: post #31
onethought wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Isn’t this why solar is good. We already have the heat sink (earth) we just aren’t using the energy.

Not exactly because the Earth naturally reflects a large amount of solar energy back into space.

A lot of that is from clouds that are above the panels

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#67

Post by yodsanklai »

xbmcuser wrote: post #19

This year ie 2024 world will add more solar power than the total consumption growth. This is despite the tariffs and sanctions on Chinese panels and batteries. I think the world is at the cusp of dramatic change that would come faster if not for western countries trying to protect their industries. I think adding more renewables as fast as possible specially solar is the best option as this will make essentially ener…

To put this statement into perspective, see this graph "Global primary energy consumption by source"

https://ourworldindata.org/global-energy-200-years

1. Share of solar is negligible 2. New sources of energy have always come on top of existing sources, never replaced them

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#68

Post by avmich »

ckrapu wrote: post #37
pxeger1 wrote: post #2

What are you gonna do about all the nitrogen etc which the plants need? Are there good ways to reextract these nutrients from dead plant material without releasing loads of carbon at the same time?

Sadly, I don't think so. Many of these carbon burial/sequestration proposals all advocate just taking all of the plant matter and tucking it away, including the N and P.

I'd burn the wood, catch CO2 with oxides, store it as carbonates. The rest would go back to the environment.

Re: Solving climate change by abusing thermodynamic scaling laws

#69

Post by avmich »

AstralStorm wrote: post #13
philipkglass wrote: post #7

I'm going to share my own insane idea for drawing down atmospheric CO2. Capture CO2 as biomass or with direct air capture. Pyrolyze biomass to charcoal or use the Bosch reaction to recover pure carbon from CO2 chemically [1]. Then combine the carbon with silicon to form silicon carbide via the Acheson process: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acheson_process Silicon carbide is extraordinarily resistant to mechanical ero…

Direct CO2 capture is thermodynamically unviable, and literally every plan and attempt involving it was highly expensive in energy.

Are you familiar with Terraform Industries works?
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