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The Jet Powered Beer Cooler
kzadot writes: "A bit of good old kiwi ingenuity, you can make a jet engine in your own home, and keep your beers cool as a side effect. And not a single piece of Number 8 wire in sight. Full instructions included."
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My question is, how much thrust does his jet produce? Could it be used to power, say, a hovercraft made from junk? I'd like to see something like this on [Junkyard|Scrapyard] Wars - ten hours to build a working jet powered (thing).
Also, could he attach a generator to the spindle of the turbo and make electric power?
Given the rate of consumption of propane he'd have to get to create the degree of cooling, I'd guestimate that he could produce better than 10kW of power from this thing. That's enough to run your house.
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This is actually very common in Recreational Vehicle circles, as RVs often carry propane but don't have electricity.
The refrigeration unit uses ammonia as the working fluid, rather than dichloro-difluro-methane (R-12). This is done because of the properties of ammonia.
In a normal refrigerator, the working fluid is compressed from a gas into a liquid. In doing so, the liquid gives up its latent heat of vaporization (the energy it takes to convert a liquid to a gas), and becomes much hotter as a result. The hot liquid is then run through a set of coils to transfer the heat to the environment.
The liquid then is fed through a throttle ( a small orifice) to reduce the pressure below the boiling point of the liquid. The liquid then evaporates, drawing the latent heat of vaporization from the environment (the inside of the fridge). The gas then runs back to the compressor and the cycle repeats.
In an ammonia fridge, rather than using a compressor pump driven by electricity, a heat source is used, and a mix of ammonia, water and hydrogen gas is used to move the heat around. A good explaination is at howstuffworks: http://www.howstuffworks.com/refrigerator5.htm
Basically, they use the fact that ammonia will dissolve in water to drive the ammonia around the cycle. That's why they cannot use R-12: it doesn't dissolve in water very well.
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So, when these things finally hit the market, why would you buy it?
1. You have beer on tap (at your house of course) and need a way to cool it.
2. You have petroleum gas on tap, and need a way to use it.
3. You have neither on tap, but need a reason to get both (on tap).
This new jet-engine-cooler begs the question... is this truly the man's barbeque? It cools, it charbroils, it's a jet engine!
One small difficulty is you'd have to lash your fixins down lest they be blown into the next county.
You could use the rotary motion of the turbine to perform some useful function as well. Perhaps providing a mobile platform for the jetberque?
One of the best things about being a B.S. in chemistry was fooling around with chemicals, and Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream rules...
This was excerpted from a popular liquid N2 site:
===
If you are anything like me, then you love ice cream. There is nothing like making your own, but the problem is, it just takes too long to freeze and some things just don't like to freeze.
A while ago Scientific American [April, 1994 pgs. 66-71] had an article call Cooking with Chemistry or something along those lines. One of the recipes was one for using Liquid Nitrogen to make Ice Cream.
Great!
Now as you all know, Nitrogen is about 78% of the volume of the atmosphere and has a boiling temperature of one hundred and ninety five point eight degrees below zero Celsius.
In plain simple English, it's cold.
The price is about two cents to $2.75 per 100 cubic feet depending on purity, which isn't anything important here, so get the two cent stuff. You will also probably need a container, which you can rent/borrow from the people that you are buying the Nitrogen from. Don't use a cooler, as it will not survive the trip.
Simple rules for handling Liquid Nitrogen:
I could say DO NOT LET IT TOUCH SKIN but someone will be a bone head and do it anyway. The truth of the matter is that the human body is so hot to the Liquid Nitrogen that it will boil in your hand with out any harm to you. However, the instant you contain the liquid Nitrogen, like in a fist, you increase the pressure of the gas trying to escape. The pressure builds up enough to give you a very bad freezer burn. Enough to need medical attention, so take my word for it and don't.
Ingredients needed to make simple Vanilla Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream:
-----
Milk
Heavy Cream (Half and Half will do nicely)
Real Vanilla not that fake junk that's sold!
Sugar
Liquid Nitrogen
Equipment needed:
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Stainless Steel mixing bowl
Wooden mixing spoon
gloves
a big sink or a level place out side.
---
First figure out how much you want to make. Multiply the total amount of ice cream by five to get the amount of Liquid Nitrogen needed to freeze the ice cream. A gallon of ice cream will thus need five gallons of Liquid Nitrogen.
Mix the Milk, Cream, Vanilla and sugar in the mixing bowl. The ratios should be twice as much cream as milk and about 8 tbsp of vanilla for every gallon of liquid. Sugar should be about 1 cup dry measure per gallon. If that's too sweet then half it. I do not know how artificial sweeteners react to the cold, so I don't recommend the usage of them.
Mix the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved into the milk and cream. Add in any fixings (candy, coffee, other flavors). Move to the sink if you haven't already. Pour in the Liquid Nitrogen slowly and mix with the wooden spoon until completely frozen, which should be about 10 minutes. Wear the gloves, because it's going to be cold.
For a better freeze, prepare the icecream in a pressure cooker, and after adding the Liquid Nitrogen, clamp shut for 5 minutes.
Eat!
If you want, you can add cookie dough or just about anything else to the mixture. Don't worry, it will freeze (trust me, it has no choice but too!).
Other flavors can be made by replacing or adding with the Vanilla with your choice of:
Coffee (hot, strong and fresh is the best) - with a few whole beans - yum!
Cookie dough - either homemade or store bought will do.
Candy - A Milky Way is good in bits, as is Heath Bar.
Liquors - Don't worry about the low freezing point, Liquid Nitrogen is much lower!
---
Let me tell you, this stuff is excellent.
Legalize the constitution. Think for yourself question authority.
A jet poowered beer cooler....
Doesn't this sound like a Darwin Award waiting to happen?
Finally, the Rock has come back to Slashdot.