Envirnmental?

[ÆNIMA]

glad you did your research conc

but you missed some key words in my post

The scientist is currently working on the Stirling engine, and has a large prototype, his plan is to have something portable that could fit in a car.

Relatively speaking, 20 years isn't that long.

What happens to water when it's boiled? Does it become death-water? Or is it pure, untainted?

[Verthanthi]

in twenty years, we should have nano-assemblers, just for an idea of how long a timescale that is in science terms these days. (although they've been clamining 20 years since 1986, so...)

[ÆNIMA]

ya, i forgot about the whole nano technology thing...there's a lot of opportunities with that

[EternalEntropy]

Originally posted by ÆNIMA
What happens to water when it's boiled? Does it become death-water? Or is it pure, untainted?

Distilled water is pure. But water has a huge specific heat, it takes quite a lot of energy to boil a cup of water. Imagine how much it takes to boil enough water on a large scale. Distillation is not the solution. Filtration through osmosis would probably be much more efficient.

There are techniques to make use of the natural water cycle. One way I know of is to set up a long net of a sort, it collects water from fog and it drains into a reservoir. Another way is to collect rain. Another way we can harness to power of the sun, have it boil the stuff for us.

[wadi]

Originally posted by Verthanthi
in twenty years, we should have nano-assemblers, just for an idea of how long a timescale that is in science terms these days. (although they've been clamining 20 years since 1986, so...)

Speaking as someone who is currently working in nanotech, this is a pipe dream; like humans going to Mars, but a hell of a lot worse.

I won't get in to the huge number of problems associated with producing a nano assembler, we'll just focus on one.

How do you program an atomic sized machine?

Originally posted by Ænima
The scientist is currently working on the Stirling engine, and has a large prototype, his plan is to have something portable that could fit in a car.

Every single new car in the world could be a high efficiency hybrid right now, but they're not. The problem with hybrids, and Stirlings, is not their efficiency, but their scalability. Would you drive a car that only went 40 miles on the highway, but used a fourth the gas of a conventional auto? "Sure", you say here, but I bet you'd go buy an H2 with everyone else when the choice really came up. It's a matter of scalability, and for now cumbustion engines remain top dog in the auto market. (euros have it better/worse with their high speed trains) Now if he's talking a high efficiency engine for industrial purposes that's all well and good, though the whole water purifying thing strikes me as a sales gimmick more than something that's actually useful (It's a hand gun AND a can opener!). Energy is energy, and if your engine's losing that much to waste heat, you could do something more multi-purpose than just boil water.

Technological time frame's a tricky thing. 20 years is both large and small on a research scale, depending on what you're talking about. Basically, predicting the appearance of something specific like a hydrogen fueled car is pretty much a crap shoot. I'd only go as far as talking about alternative fuel (no gasoline) cars. Heck, with a few advances in current technology we could just run everything on alcohol anyway.

[ConcreteSchlyrd]

Originally posted by ÆNIMA
The scientist is currently working on the Stirling engine, and has a large prototype, his plan is to have something portable that could fit in a car.

I know who Dean Kamen is, dicknuts. I've actually spoken with him personally. And I probably saw the same 60 Minutes TV special that you saw, which makes you the ultimate authority. The point stands--don't you think someone would have done this already by now if it was feasible on a grand scale?

Originally posted by ÆNIMA
Relatively speaking, 20 years isn't that long.

I didn't know we were talking in geological terms. 20 years is a hell of a long time in technology terms, especially at the exponential rate we're expanding at right now. And in the case that you "missed some key words in my post," you'd see that I said 20 years minimum--that's a rough estimate by any means.

[ÆNIMA]

Relative to the rate at which our fossil fuels are being depleted.

People have tried making the Stirling engine efficient, Kamen is the one who's working on it now.

Originally posted by ConcreteSchlyrd
The point stands--don't you think someone would have done this already by now if it was feasible on a grand scale?

I wonder how many people said that to the Wright brothers, or many other inventors. You know as well as I that ideas take time to develop. They take even longer to develop if only a few people are working on them.

Let's look at this potable water problem another way. Out of all the years of recorded history, has the entire fresh-water supply been depleted off the face of the earth? Has there ever been a world-wide drought where we just simply ran out of water?

In a world where it doesn't rain, that's feasible. (The Last Continent by Terry Pratchett for example).

If humanity did run out of fresh and potable water, do you think we would come to the conclusion that distilling ocean water is too expensive and just die? If, and that's a big If, it came to that, I'm sure the government would adopt methods of distilling water for as many people as possible.

We're not going to run out of water.

Originally posted by ConcreteSchlyrd
...dicknuts.

Please keep the personal attacks on a private level, let's avoid acting like children.

[ÆNIMA]

Sorry, double post.

[Mattey]

Originally posted by ÆNIMA

We're not going to run out of water.

The fact that you think that we won't run out of water, does not make water infinite.

[ÆNIMA]

nor does it make water turn into chocolate milk...what's your point?

[Mattey]

Originally posted by ConcreteSchlyrd
Water is finite.

From what I understand this is what you were trying to disprove the whole time... you failed.

[Jeansi]

Originally posted by ÆNIMA
water can be created

water isn't limited, we have oceans...and the dude who invented the segue is working on a motor that produces energy for whatever purpose, and the excess heat generated can be used to boil water

"what about deserts?"


ok, a compromise...dish washers for people who live in wetter lands, and paper plates for people in deserts

smart ppl say that water is the oil of the world in 50 years. Making water is not cheap. Only countries who actually extract drinkable water from seawater is the Quatarians, the guys in Quatar that is. They have huge destillation plants in the desert and it is said to be very economical in the long run.

[Mattey]

Isn't is just economic? Isn't economical like scientifical?

[Mr. Peanuts]

i have a nuke the whales poster in my room.

[pv=nrt]

jeansi is correct, desalination plants have been used for quite a while in the middle east to provide drinking water from the ocean. The process is realatively simple and can be done here in the states. THe reason why we don't is because our fresh water supply is not strained to the point where we need to yet. Building a plant costs a lot of money.