Posted on 09/17/2011 7:30:16 AM PDT by Red Badger
In October, British researchers supported by the U.K. government will attempt to pump water a kilometer into the air using little more than a helium balloon and a rubber hose. The experiment, which will take place at a military airfield along England's east coast, is meant as a test of a proposed geoengineering technique for offsetting the warming effects of greenhouse gases. If the balloon and hose can handle the water's weight and pressure, similar pipes rising 20 kilometers could pump tons of reflective aerosols into the stratosphere.
The scheme, called SPICE (stratospheric particle injection for climate engineering), is one of several proposed geoengineering methods under study. In this case, the idea is that particles injected into the stratosphere would reflect a small percentage of the sun's energy back into space, thereby cooling the planet. The concept seeks to mimic the cooling effect of volcanoes that inject sulfide particles into the stratosphere in large quantity. A 2009 study by the U.K. meteorological office estimated that 10 million metric tons of sulfide particles injected annually into the stratosphere would cool the planet by approximately 2 °C within a few years.
Other methods of geoengineering have also been tested, including fertilizing oceans to encourage algae blooms and pulling carbon dioxide out of the air. But a 2009 report by the U.K.'s Royal Society concluded that reflective aerosol injected into the stratosphere would be the least expensive and most effective way to rapidly cool the planet.
In addition to the pipe tethered to the balloon, airplanes and rockets could be used to deploy the particles. But Hugh Hunt, a senior lecturer in engineering at the University of Cambridge and a member of the SPICE project, says the balloon-and-pipe approach that his group is testing would be significantly less expensive. "Trying to use airplanes or rockets ends up costing 100 or 1,000 times more than a pipe and balloon," Hunt says. "At an altitude of 20 kilometers, an airplane can only carry one, maybe two, tons of payload. That means five to 10 million flights per year, burning roughly 1 percent of global oil production. It seems unlikely to me that that would be economically viable when a few dozen pipes would do just as good a job."
The current pilot program will pump 100 kilograms of water per hour to an altitude of one kilometer. Full-scale designs call for as many as 64 pipes spread around the world, each lifting five kilograms of sulfur dioxide or other reflective particles per second—approximately 160,000 metric tons per year. Each pipe alone would weigh 30 tons and would be held aloft by a balloon 100 meters in diameter, slightly larger than the largest balloons ever built. The biggest challenge of all, however, would be developing a flexible pipe that can withstand ultrahigh pressures. To raise the particles to a height of 20 kilometers, the pipe would have to withstand 4,000 to 6,000 bar, or atmospheres of pressure.
Can we get the Monty Python crew to put this in a skit?
Shortly after 9/11, I wondered if a big-lift, stabilized helicopter, with a water nozzle mounted underneath, could lift a length of water hose, with the water being pumped by fire engines below.
A bit of back-of-the-napkin math showed that you'd reach the bursting point of standard fire hose long before the water you were pumping reached the floors where the fires were burning in the WTC.
I hope it succeeds. There are bound to be other more useful applications for lifting a liquid that high.
Euthenizing liberals is merciful.
Add the weight of a heat wire and the power required to operate it;)
Making rainbows, come to mind..................
or a solar panel. I here you can get one from Solyndra really cheap now.................
Good point !!! It will freeze in the tube¿?
What is the freezing point of sulfur dioxide?
Ohho, the pipe gets thinner the higher it gets till
eventually it’s not there at all, that’s where the
water comes out.
Also they can pump hydrogen into the water and let
it counter balance the weight.
See how simple it all is..../s
Seems like it would be easier to just let the pipe down
from the ISS...../s
The bankruptcy referee is offering them of $535,000,000 smackers. Investors get paid before taxpayers, however.
Going back to my long ago college physics, I think the lower atmospheric pressure at 20,000 meters altitude will suck the stuff up the hose like a straw in a soft drink. Or maybe not. I wasn’t really paying attention in class that day. But I have faith these scientists will figure it all out and cool the earth into a crippling ice age.
A 65,000’ hose @ 1/32 in. I.D. (.03125 in.) would hold 2.157+/- Imp. Gals. based on:
Radius of 0.015625 in. squared = .00024414 x Pi = .0007666 sq. in. x 65000 = 48.829 x 12 = 597.9 cu.in./277.2(cu. in./Imp.Gal.) = 2.157 Gal.
So 18 Lbs for the water itself @ 8.37 Lbs./Gal and 28,145 Lbs for the fluid column @ .433 PSIG/Ft.
I’ve never been a math guy (feel free to correct any errors), but I’ve seen hydraulic fluid get injected into a power tongs operator’s arm when a hydraulic line popped @ about 1800 PSI or so (his crew told us the PSI) when I was roughnecking. I would want to be anywhere near one of these insane contraptions.
Should be I would NOT want to be....Doh!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulfur_dioxide
Melting point-72 °C, 201 K, -98 °F
@sea level?
Factor in the pressure/temperature?
The first project is to use water at 20k.
Very good... “or a solar panel. I here you can get one from Solyndra really cheap now........”
Or maybe not. I wasn’t really paying attention in class that day.
They actally want to pump SO2 to 65,000', and are only going to pump water to 1 km as a test.
I'm not a math guy or a chemist, but Sulfur Dioxide condenses to a liquid at -10°C at STP, so it may be possible to pump it all the way to 65,000' because it may change phase at some point in the trip up (lower pressure at altitude means lower boiling point.)
So it might be feasible to do what they say. I'm not sure what presssures at sea level would be involved when pumping SO2 to 65,000' but I wouldn't be surprised if the pressures are similar to pumping H2O one kilometer...
Capillary action.......
The adhesion of water is limited to approx 21 feet then you get cavitation. To get beyond 21 feet requires pressure.
MIT Technology Review is not peer reviewed and does not pretend to be, but it is generally good (if a bit speculative on occasion). The choice surprised me as well. Many of the technical issues mentioned are manageable, even lifting to one kilometer, if it is done in stages, which is not mentioned in the article but is a reasonable accommodation. If they have booster pumps every twenty, fifty, or one hundred feet, the pressures are much more plausible. Of course there is the pump weight issue, but they can afford a grand new DARPA project in a good cause. Perhaps MHD pumps powered by solar panels on the balloon would suffice
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