Distill? Kidding, right? Unless the energy fairy (aka Mr Fusion) arrives soon (not in 40 years), industrial desalination of sea water at semi reasonable cost requires reverse osmosis. But and it's a REALLY big but, reverse osmosis of seawater does give you nice, pure as rain, water. It gives you water with most of the salt removed EXCEPT for Boron*.
what do you do with the brine?
How do you cope with the public health issues of BORON poisoning of people and irrigated lands from industrial RO?
*Boron (aka AntRid) is a light weight element that slips through the reverse osmosis membranes as they age and easily exceeds the safe limit unless the costly membranes are replaced regularly. The usual method is dilute the RO water with fresh water. Parts of Sydney water supply between the RO plant and the fresh water storage get undiluted RO water straight from the tap.
Hey, code monkey, time to level up and start your new exciting career. Medical research is a growing field and the sky's (aka heaven) the limit for the right candidate. Benefits include free food, free housing and lots of free time for you own pursuits*. Science needs you!
Strontium versus Biphosphonate (Fosamax) My excellent other half has been taking strontium citrate for a year now and her mild cervical osteoporosis (and her tooth strength) have improved immensely. In Australia the rules for receiving subsidised prescription osteoporosis medicines are that you need to be over 71 yo and have had a osteoporotic fracture!
The prescriptions are all for patented medicines: Strontium is available as Strontium ranelate (the ranelic acid part does little more than allow the manufacturer to claim a patent and hence fund the required double blind studies). Strontium is well tolerated, is more effective and more benign than biphosphonates. The biphosphonates are just not good enough: not well tolerated (nausea) and 10% fossy jaw were the jaw bone literally rots out!
Researching sources of "health food" strontium as a cheaper substitute, show that Strontium citrate (available online from US) is 8% of the cost of off script strontium ranelate.
Doctor: I regret to inform you that you have inoperable cancer. You: fufufufufuf!!!!!!ck Doctor: And the bad news is.... You: ???? Doctor: You are now willfully infringing on MegaDeathPharm exclusive cancer patent. You: !!!! Doctor: A lawyer with a kitchen knife will now extract one of your kidneys for the pre settlement bond. Next!
The conference seminars are now available for viewing. Felisa Wolfe-Simon's seminar is on day 2: Alternative Biochemistry and Arsenic, or Life as We Might Not Expect It
The only environment you really need to worry about is the microclimate in your wallet. "Coal" powered cars will seem damn cheap transport when oil goes into $hundreds per barrel, either as China outbids for dwindling oil stocks or the USD buying power deflates again (QE3?). We are now in post-peak oil since 2005. Cue the denialists...3...2...1...
Why, only the nutritious and delicious residue, of course. Kind of like the picture of a sturdy pine treelet being planted in expensively cleaned top soil by the CEO of Suncor, contains 100% of my daily requirement of spin.
proven both nutritious and delicious
I really was being humourous and didnt expect to be called out for proof. Thank you for my citation source!
Meanwhile that toxic sludge (heavy metals, bitumen fractions etc) is being poured into the wilderness rivers. Christ in a canoe, the 'mericans are expecting to all live up there in 2100 when the Arctic melts and here you go shitting up all that fine real estate with tar sludge. "Hey America, we paved the top bit of your hat to make a nice parking lot"
Quote: copper—which is everywhere around you—will be gone in about 61 years; antimony—widely used in medicines—will be depleted in 20 years; while indium, rhodium, platinum, or silver—which are present in many essential consumer electronics—won't last much longer. And those estimations are only valid if we manage to consume half of what we are consuming now.
Yes, under that first foot of ice is more ice, and then some more ice, and then then then and then more ice (to 15000 ft). If you think drilling for trouble^H^H^H^H^H oil in a measly 4000 ft of water of Gulf of Texaco is only for british pensioners, try running an open cut mine at the bottom of 15000 feet of ice. Or are you a global warming optimist so that the bright side of cooking our atmosphere is that the ice caps will melt and leave a mineral bonanza of the virgin antarctic continent? But that fantasy doesn't really work because by the time the ice caps have melted the majority of the antarctic 'continent' will be a couple of smallish islands. And dont forget about the thoroughly pissed off penguins.
Do an energy audit and get that number down: buy an energy monitor (eBay $20-) and look at refrigeration, electric cooking, computer servers, CRT screens, lighting. If have air conditioning you must look at changing to smaller sized split inverter type.
If anyone has any solid data or leads let me know, I will certainly be interested in knowing more. Additional data: I have a UPS installed in the house (rated at 5 KVA, with four 12V 120AH batteries, which I believe can store approx 8 KWh of energy) which should be enough supply the house in the night times. So ideally with the right PV's (which can generate about 10 KWh per day with a few hours of sunshine) I can completely go off the grid and tap into the grid...
Sorry, totally inadequate battery strategy. I reckon your UPS will last at least 3 days and at most 3 weeks;) If you want lead-acid batteries to support 10kWh per day AND last more than 5 years you need to make sure the % DOD (google) never goes below 30% and they HATE more than 30C; as you are on grid you can plan on 20% DOD per day and if the battery goes below 30% (monsoon etc), switch to grid. Lead-acid batteries are about 85% charge efficiency in the top up from 80% to full AND there are charger and inverter losses: To use 8kWh per day you will need 10kWh produced and 45-60KWh battery storage; at 12.8V thats an insane 4K amp-hr supply!!!! And at those power usages, you'd best look at 48V DC systems. The cost of copper wire is not trivial!
With a seasonal tracking system (adjusted tilt every 3 months ~15% extra from fixed) you will require for 10KWh/day a 2.0KW PV system for full bright 8 months of year. A full tracking system (auto tracks sun across sky ~25% extra from fixed) is only usefull if you have no obstacles to the horizon; wind stability for a large moving PV 'sail' has significant engineering cost. (% extra power versus fixed mounting are valid for my latitude)
How do I know?
I designed and built my own off-grid power system 3 years ago. 24V 1600AHr lead-acid batteries, fixed 2.0 KW array running at nominal 48V, using a MPPT (google) charger controller. We use 3.1 KWh/day (about 8% DOD for 12 year battery life). When we turn on the air con for 12 hours, we use all the panels can make, 8-10 KWHr in summer. We have all LED lighting. We run laptops. We have evacuated tube solar hot water. We save aggravation of running a petrol generator on low light winter days just to support a fridge/freezer (1.5KWhr/d), by having the freezer separate from the fridge (400WHr/day) and running a DC freezer only in summer. Our air con has an EER of 5.2: uses 480W for 2.55KW of cooling for a small room. On crisp but sunny winter mornings, the a/c heats to takes the chill off. We have wood-burning stove/oven for space heat and auxiliary winter hot water. We use microwave and LPG for cooking, but bake in wood-burning oven, mmm... wood oven pizza/tandoor.
Why do I know?
All up cost of the PV system with batteries that will last 12 years etc was $25K (with government subsidies), the cost of getting the grid connected a mere 500 meters at +$80/m PLUS $2K per year on a bit of electricity but mainly outrageous 'line maintenance' fees. PV cost over 25 years: no more than $35K and panels still 80% efficient versus $100K for the grid at _current_ prices, probably final cost by 2032 could be $250K as our on-grid neighbours are seeing 15-30% per year price increases.
Why so virtuous?
We collect our rain water (no town supply), we grow 30 sqm of vegetables, we use our car for one 50km supply trip twice a month.
Send me an email to this temporary disposable mail box yfinnepa_965@yopmail.com that we can talk in depth without the raw sludge of american denialism...
Slashdot Mirror
Distill? Kidding, right?
Unless the energy fairy (aka Mr Fusion) arrives soon (not in 40 years), industrial desalination of sea water at semi reasonable cost requires reverse osmosis.
But and it's a REALLY big but, reverse osmosis of seawater does give you nice, pure as rain, water.
It gives you water with most of the salt removed EXCEPT for Boron*.
what do you do with the brine?
How do you cope with the public health issues of BORON poisoning of people and irrigated lands from industrial RO?
*Boron (aka AntRid) is a light weight element that slips through the reverse osmosis membranes as they age and easily
exceeds the safe limit unless the costly membranes are replaced regularly. The usual method is dilute the RO water with fresh water.
Parts of Sydney water supply between the RO plant and the fresh water storage get undiluted RO water straight from the tap.
Yeh smoking rugs is really bad for you
I went to badasstronomy to read the article, but it was slashdotted :(
Marshall
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Hey, code monkey, time to level up and start your new exciting career.
Medical research is a growing field and the sky's (aka heaven) the limit for the right candidate.
Benefits include free food, free housing and lots of free time for you own pursuits*.
Science needs you!
*Kibble, cage and staring at the bars thereof.
Sorry, you are well over-estimating the value of anecdotal evidence.
The going rate is fifty anecdotal evidences to the dollar.
My 2c worth ;-)
Strontium versus Biphosphonate (Fosamax)
My excellent other half has been taking strontium citrate for a year now and her mild cervical osteoporosis (and her tooth strength) have improved immensely.
In Australia the rules for receiving subsidised prescription osteoporosis medicines are that you need to be over 71 yo and have had a osteoporotic fracture!
The prescriptions are all for patented medicines: Strontium is available as Strontium ranelate (the ranelic acid part does little more than allow the manufacturer to claim a patent and hence fund the required double blind studies). Strontium is well tolerated, is more effective and more benign than biphosphonates.
The biphosphonates are just not good enough: not well tolerated (nausea) and 10% fossy jaw were the jaw bone literally rots out!
Researching sources of "health food" strontium as a cheaper substitute, show that Strontium citrate (available online from US) is 8% of the cost of off script strontium ranelate.
The Buzzard brand is safe.
But has been rebranded as Turkey Vulture
Doctor: I regret to inform you that you have inoperable cancer.
You: fufufufufuf!!!!!!ck
Doctor: And the bad news is....
You: ????
Doctor: You are now willfully infringing on MegaDeathPharm exclusive cancer patent.
You: !!!!
Doctor: A lawyer with a kitchen knife will now extract one of your kidneys for the pre settlement bond.
Next!
is getting caught
Not listed in manuals, percussive maintenance is one of the less productive arms of mechanics.
Please boot the computer. Now take the boots off. Finally, reboot the computer.
Algal fuel requires huge amounts of phosphate. We are running out of cheap phosphate. Thanks for playing; try again.
Last month, NASA hosted an online astrobiology conference:
http://astrobiology.nasa.gov/nai/ool-www/program/
The conference seminars are now available for viewing.
Felisa Wolfe-Simon's seminar is on day 2:
Alternative Biochemistry and Arsenic, or Life as We Might Not Expect It
The only environment you really need to worry about is the microclimate in your wallet. ...3...2...1...
"Coal" powered cars will seem damn cheap transport when oil goes into $hundreds per barrel,
either as China outbids for dwindling oil stocks or the USD buying power deflates again (QE3?).
We are now in post-peak oil since 2005. Cue the denialists
Correction: Sidney Mourning Harold
More importantly, how much is it in furlongs per fluid ounce?
70 mpg = 4.375 furlongs per fluid ounce (US)
70 mpUSg
= 70*8 furlongs per US gallon
= 560 furlongs per US gallon
= 560 furlongs per 128 US fluid ounces
= 4.375
I just fail to see WHY it is important, unless maybe with Peak Oil price inflation you will need to buy petrol in affordable fluid ounces?
the Brickish Empire
Why, only the nutritious and delicious residue, of course.
Kind of like the picture of a sturdy pine treelet being planted in expensively cleaned top soil by the CEO of Suncor, contains 100% of my daily requirement of spin.
proven both nutritious and delicious
I really was being humourous and didnt expect to be called out for proof. Thank you for my citation source!
Meanwhile that toxic sludge (heavy metals, bitumen fractions etc) is being poured into the wilderness rivers.
Christ in a canoe, the 'mericans are expecting to all live up there in 2100 when the Arctic melts and here you go shitting up all that fine real estate with tar sludge. "Hey America, we paved the top bit of your hat to make a nice parking lot"
Quote:
copper—which is everywhere around you—will be gone in about 61 years;
antimony—widely used in medicines—will be depleted in 20 years;
while indium, rhodium, platinum, or silver—which are present in many essential consumer electronics—won't last much longer.
And those estimations are only valid if we manage to consume half of what we are consuming now.
http://gizmodo.com/5219598/how-long-will-our-world-last-yes-we-are-screwed
But not to worry that was 4 years ago, before the GFC. Surely the future is so much rosier now.
no longer can I bring myself to correctly utter the name of lullison's code cancer corporation, ever more.
but the vast oceans of residue from tar sands mining has now been proven both nutritious and delicious, eh!
Yes, under that first foot of ice is more ice, and then some more ice, and then then then and then more ice (to 15000 ft). If you think drilling for trouble^H^H^H^H^H oil in a measly 4000 ft of water of Gulf of Texaco is only for british pensioners, try running an open cut mine at the bottom of 15000 feet of ice. Or are you a global warming optimist so that the bright side of cooking our atmosphere is that the ice caps will melt and leave a mineral bonanza of the virgin antarctic continent? But that fantasy doesn't really work because by the time the ice caps have melted the majority of the antarctic 'continent' will be a couple of smallish islands. And dont forget about the thoroughly pissed off penguins.
we consume ~ 250 KWh per month
Do an energy audit and get that number down: buy an energy monitor (eBay $20-) and look at refrigeration, electric cooking, computer servers, CRT screens, lighting. If have air conditioning you must look at changing to smaller sized split inverter type.
If anyone has any solid data or leads let me know, I will certainly be interested in knowing more. Additional data: I have a UPS installed in the house (rated at 5 KVA, with four 12V 120AH batteries, which I believe can store approx 8 KWh of energy) which should be enough supply the house in the night times. So ideally with the right PV's (which can generate about 10 KWh per day with a few hours of sunshine) I can completely go off the grid and tap into the grid ...
Sorry, totally inadequate battery strategy. I reckon your UPS will last at least 3 days and at most 3 weeks;) If you want lead-acid batteries to support 10kWh per day AND last more than 5 years you need to make sure the % DOD (google) never goes below 30% and they HATE more than 30C; as you are on grid you can plan on 20% DOD per day and if the battery goes below 30% (monsoon etc), switch to grid. Lead-acid batteries are about 85% charge efficiency in the top up from 80% to full AND there are charger and inverter losses: To use 8kWh per day you will need 10kWh produced and 45-60KWh battery storage; at 12.8V thats an insane 4K amp-hr supply!!!! And at those power usages, you'd best look at 48V DC systems. The cost of copper wire is not trivial!
With a seasonal tracking system (adjusted tilt every 3 months ~15% extra from fixed) you will require for 10KWh/day a 2.0KW PV system for full bright 8 months of year.
A full tracking system (auto tracks sun across sky ~25% extra from fixed) is only usefull if you have no obstacles to the horizon; wind stability for a large moving PV 'sail' has significant engineering cost. (% extra power versus fixed mounting are valid for my latitude)
How do I know?
I designed and built my own off-grid power system 3 years ago. 24V 1600AHr lead-acid batteries, fixed 2.0 KW array running at nominal 48V, using a MPPT (google) charger controller. We use 3.1 KWh/day (about 8% DOD for 12 year battery life). When we turn on the air con for 12 hours, we use all the panels can make, 8-10 KWHr in summer. We have all LED lighting. We run laptops. We have evacuated tube solar hot water. We save aggravation of running a petrol generator on low light winter days just to support a fridge/freezer (1.5KWhr/d), by having the freezer separate from the fridge (400WHr/day) and running a DC freezer only in summer. Our air con has an EER of 5.2: uses 480W for 2.55KW of cooling for a small room. On crisp but sunny winter mornings, the a/c heats to takes the chill off. We have wood-burning stove/oven for space heat and auxiliary winter hot water. We use microwave and LPG for cooking, but bake in wood-burning oven, mmm... wood oven pizza/tandoor.
Why do I know?
All up cost of the PV system with batteries that will last 12 years etc was $25K (with government subsidies), the cost of getting the grid connected a mere 500 meters at +$80/m PLUS $2K per year on a bit of electricity but mainly outrageous 'line maintenance' fees. PV cost over 25 years: no more than $35K and panels still 80% efficient versus $100K for the grid at _current_ prices, probably final cost by 2032 could be $250K as our on-grid neighbours are seeing 15-30% per year price increases.
Why so virtuous?
We collect our rain water (no town supply), we grow 30 sqm of vegetables, we use our car for one 50km supply trip twice a month.
Send me an email to this temporary disposable mail box yfinnepa_965@yopmail.com that we can talk in depth without the raw sludge of american denialism...
Peak oil? BRING IT ON!
What are the weaknesses of the free market where the government should step in?
Sub-prime mortgages? Derivatives-build-from-derivatives ad nauseum? Rings any bell?
What are the weaknesses of the government that the free market can exploit?
Trillion dollar bail-outs on sub-prime mortgages, derivatives-build-from-derivatives ad nauseum? Rings any bell?
I voted [60] Stephen Conroy. Cross fingers ;).
I DID vote [60] Stephen Conroy and he is STILL Minister for Fascism, Censorship and the Ideology Driven Nanny State.