Earthbound Space Stations

Perhaps the CO2 produced can be bubbled through a tank of algae (possibly chlorella or spirulina). The CO2 will serve as a carbon source for the algae, which will release O2 as a by-product of photosynthesis. The excess chlorella or spirulina can in turn be harvested and serve either as a dietary supplement for the crew, or as animal feed, or even fermented to form CH4 gas and fertilizer. I have actually been studying the feasibility of such a system and it seems to have potential.

SInce our space station is on a rock called earth, we need to consider these facts, too:

• We need a cerain amount of carbon dioxide, a natural amount, for all plant life to survive. Bio-fuel, regardless of whether it is methane, alcohols, or produced via steam reformation, produces 'natural carbon dioxide'. That is that the carbon dioxide comes from the plant's breathing it in in the first place. Remember you high school biology class, all plants breath in carbon dioxide and breath out oxygen. DVader1000 is correct in this regard.
• We need to remember, too, that the object of this earthbound space station is to remain within a budget that we average people can afford. Let us attempt to keep our space station under $250,000 if we can. But let's try, also, to be able to scale down to under $100,000 for the poor people of developing nations, too. When we start providing low cost energy to these people, we will be making major strides toward world peace and harmony. Let us share our wealth and knowledge. Greed will, eventually, destroy civilization just as surely as it destroyed the Roman Empire.
• Items 6 through 9 in the outline of our earthbound space station will be discussion the development of biomass fuels, bio-digestion, fermentation, distillation, and reformation. THe US department of Energy does have major programs for this issue and science is hard at work developing these tools, aided greatly by the new field of Nanotechnology.
  

Here's a concept you might want to consider. Seeds (e.g. grain, soybeans) are harvested and pressed for their oil. The oil is used for cooking while the seed-meal is used for food or animal feed.

When the cooking oil can no longer be used for cooking, it is converted into biodiesel. The glycerine extracted is either used for animal feed or pharmaceuticals.

The solid human and animal wastes are composted. The CH4 released is used for fuel, while the remaining solids are used for fertilizer.

All the wastewater produced as a result of these activities is treated using constructed wetlands. Edible plants growing in the wetlands that have not absorbed any toxic material will be used as animal feed. Those that have absorbed toxic material will be fermented to form CH4 gas, and the remaining solids refined to extract the metals etc.

Finally, as the water used to produce biodiesel contains NaOH, it will be used to scrub the exhaust gases produced by burning the CH4. As CH4 is a clean burning fuel, producing only CO2 and water as byproducts, this will totally eliminate particulate emissions. The Na2CO3 produced by scrubbing the CO2 from the exhaust will be treated to re-release the CO2 into the water in the wetlands to serve as a carbon source for the plants, while the NaOH recovered can be reused to produce biodiesel. In this way, almost nothing is wasted, while carbon emissions into the atmosphere is kept to a minimum.

While this idea may seem like a pipe dream for now, I am actually mentoring some college students to research its feasibility. I think that this might be one possible solution to some of the world's environmental problems. By the way, I am a volunteer in an NGO that aims to promote the use of environmentally-friendly, ecologically-sustainable methods in impoverished Third World nations, and we would be most interested to hear the input of anyone who has any such ideas; well, as long as they don't involve New Age nonsense like free energy and perpetual motion, that is.

Take a look at this, http://www1.eere.energy.gov/biomass/, and let's consider the many options involved. I have finished the re-organization of the outline and re-titled the article to My Earthbound Space Station and ahve added a brief note into item 6 of the outline. I have sent a note to cogeneration.net, a Houston, Texas (my location, too), organization dedicated to alternative energy offering them some input to the biomass gasification part of item 6. Let's see what they might reply.

Okay, that's great. Let's see what is immediately feasible and what can be studied further.

With this article, the goal is to be very practical and find materials, methods, and equipment which is readily available and that the average person can assemble and construct with minimum help. One of the duties of Engineering design is NOT to re-invent the wheel, but to take existing materials and equipment and reshape it into a working design. Notice, I am giving brand names and naming sources. This, in turn allows us to define costs. Engineer in any field involves these steps, with safety and reliability being the first consideration. The costs center around value received. We must keep in mind the building codes, with the more stringent taking precedence even in areas which have no established building codes such as third world nations. I envision, in time, a packaged kit which the owner can assemble or hire to be assembled with a minimum of skilled labor, perhaps one knowledgeable engineer of craftsman. The idea is to build self sustainable homesteads much as our pioneering forefathers did to build this Nation back in the "olden days". My grandfather was an 89er in Oklahoma, built his own home, served on the territorial legislature, and was a co-founder of what is now Oklahoma State University. If they could do it, we can do it, or have we lost all our pioneering abilities?

You might want to get in touch with this guy Jose Ching. He has come up with an interesting way of using water with a low static head to generate hydroelectricity. Essentially, he uses a hydroram to drive water at a low head up into a tank that's quite high up. Before the water enters the tank, it impinges against a waterwheel, driving a generator. From the tank, some of the water will flow back down into the hydroram, which will drive it back up against the waterwheel and into the tank again.

I have analyzed his design and it's not one of those ridiculous perpetual motion nonsense since the water was continuously be replenished due to losses from the hydroram. He has posted his idea on this forum before, though I can't remember the URL. He is currently seeking help in developing his idea further. If you're interested, this is his email address: renew_hydropower@yahoo.com

I notice that some of your objectives is very similar to that of Vision Network Society, the NGO I belong to. Perhaps you'll be interested to contact our head. His name is Dr. Eric Tan and this is his email address: tannaiho@sbc.edu.sg. The recycling of wastes program I posted earlier is being carried out on a trial basis in Cambodia, albiet on a less ambitious scale.

Dvader (? Darth Vader ?),

First thoughts are that the cost of this might be to high for the amount of energy produced. Yes, flowing water can be supply useful energy for many purposes, but water also consumes lots of energy, too. Gravity does a great job of moving water down hill. The major problem is that in many locations on this little space rock is short of water. Often, too, where there is water, it is buried deeply underground and considerable energy must be expended to pull it up to the surface. In some low water locations, water will be the key to human existence and large quantities of .energy will be needed just to supply fresh drinking water and considerably more to irrigate agriculture. Water is rapidly become a valuable commodity and is a whole different project we need to study and develop.

http://www.energyadvocate.com/ why not explore this site, with regard to your lawnmower idea.

Well, we all advocate energy and have since the days of Adam and Eve. However, when examining the energyadvocate site, I find little useful other then some conversion charts. I can't even find a discussion that would promote one type of energy source over another except for the statement that they are especially pro-nuclear. Also, in the yellow chart for rating the energy values received from different sources for batteries somehow neglects to mention fuel cells and hydrogen.

I believe fuel cell technology is 150 years old but is just now being developed. Hydrogen is, by far, the most abundant element and fuel available in the universe. Yes, it is even the fuel of choice for powering our sun and it the primary fuel for our nuclear fusion program, including fusion (plasma) rockets of the future. However, this is not the point of the ultimate lawnmower or the earthbound space station. The idea is to bring the latest energy technology to the people without destroying the environment. Because the tubular.solid oxide fuel cell is so adaptable to use so many fuels, including hydrocarbons, it has been chosen as the key electric power source for the earthbound space station. As for the ultimate lawnmower, perhaps a different type fuel cell will be better.

In any case, the real value I see for transport of energy is our natural gas pipelines being use to carry hydrogen and/or methane and/or alcohol vapors (ethanol boiling point is 140 F) to be the fuel for electrical generation. I see fuel cells at being the most efficent of the generators available to us, with nuclear fusion power being in the background but as a potential unacceptable safety hazard. However, teh use of He3 in fusion does not produce the radioactive residues the other types of fusion produce. However, the nearest practical source of He3 is the moon.

You might want to check out this site as it has an excellent How to on methane digesters.

http://journeytoforever.org/biofuel_library/MethaneDigesters/MD2.html

sds1950,

Thank you for the link. I went back to the journeytoforever home page and bookmarked it. It does contain some very useful information for designing and building turnkey skids for bio-fuels. I am sure the suggestions will be quite useful. Since bio-fuels will also include the production of syn-gas we will need to include a syn-gas module for the skid. Thus, we well have three separate systems:

1. The ethanol system which consists of bo8iler for extracting sugars and starches, a fermentation tank, and a reflux vacuum still.
2. A closed septic tank unit for production of methane gases from household wastes.
3. A syn-gas production unit for the treatment of cellulose and other biomass solids for the production of syn-gas.

We will have the exhaust gases form the SOFC at 850°C for our process heat for both the ethanol system and the syn-gas system. The exhaust heat can also be used for household heating, hot water, and cooking, too. The proper distribution of this heat source will require some engineering but will likely be best handled with a simple steam boiler at the exhaust end of the SOFC. The boiler can have supplemental burners to assure sufficient steam at teh proper pressure/temperature. The final component of the skid will be a liquid fuel storage unit for the alcohol. The gas fuel can be stored in the SOFC skid in a tank between the natural gas supply and the SOFC. This will effectively shut off the natural gas supply when to syn-gas/hydrogen/methane pressure becomes greater than the natural gas inlet regulator.

Remember, all of this system is to be designed in modules and that each unit will be sold at turnkey. That means the units will be hooked up, turned on, and running with minimum of client intervention.