EX-Z3
ƒ/2.6
5.8 mm
1/80
The nano fill-up station. Today in Salt Lake City, Utah.
13 responses to “Nano Fill”
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The guy in the dirty labcoat looks bored. Did he fill up on nanos and now he’s sleepy?
Seriously… wouldn’t a powder at the "nano" level be more dangerous to inhale than printer toner? I would think you could really damage your lungs with that and it looks like you’ve got an open bucket with what looks like residue inside. Tell us the practical applications of "Nano Fill"…
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The labcoat guy was listening to a suggestion for a better powder mixing method.
As for "nano-fill", it’s just another misnomer…. 34 microns was the finest powder here, but still, I see your point….
You know, the closest I came to killing an entrepreneur relates to nanopowders. They had a capability to make nanopowders of aluminum. I asked if they has tried 20-30nm powders. I assumed they knew that aluminum explodes in air at that size…. They did not, and their lab is no more.
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"Al powder"! My favorite!
Almost 18 years ago I show the results of an explosion of Al powder, produced by the friction or the rotor in an ultra-centrifuge, mixed with the oil of the diffusion pump used to produce the vacuum.
The rotor left the centrifuge chamber, going through the top of it (not quite strong to resist), through a window (leaving behind a perfect cut, cartoon like) and landed 2 stares and 50 m away.
The rotor and tubes resisted the temporal PIFO* transformation and samples were recovered.
The compagny producing the centrifuge emitted a warning and forbidden the combination (rotor/centrifuge) the next day.*Perfectly Identified Flying Object.
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Here’s the science bit: In such reactions the temperature is high, the explosions spectacular, but the energy content is not as great as that required to prepare the fuel (even lumps of Al are in deficit in energy-economics terms, never mind Aluminium flour). So perhaps not. Gas station workers will get by on handling hydrogen.
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the energy content is not as great as that required to prepare the fuel
well that’s basic thermodynamics .. the thing is that if the deficit is small enough, it could make for highly effecient energy storage medium ~ fuel.
i wonder if it is more or less efficient than creating/collecting all of the hydrogen we would need.
even if it is less efficient than hydrogen, if the powder is lighter than hydrogen at the same total energy potential we could use it in moving vehicles because they wouldn’t need all that extra energy to carry around the heavier fuel.
i doubt this, of course, because i’ve heard that creating alluminum requires tremendous energy input, and then you’d need the energy to turn it into a powder.
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…and our living only requires it (E) in food format. Mother Nature is a cool engineer. Yes, I know this is a basic biology notion.
And it feels so good 😉
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Striatic, you’re probably right about the economics of burning metal (already expensively cooked earth). It’s a bit like heating your home with charcoal: nice hot glow but ultimately wasteful. And in the same vein, I worry about the prepping of H2 – electrolysis of water? As for the energy density (of Al), I have no idea. Alieness: if your vehicle chokes on sugary snacks try it on oily bio-diesel?
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