Comments on: What technologies will boom?

By: Simon Derricutt

Simon Derricutt — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:52:55 +0000

Iggy – although this is outside farming, the same system under lights and in a heated house could grow food anywhere. I like the idea of no pesticides needed (no soil-borne diseases), and if the chemists get the nutrient mix close enough then it should be as good as “organic” produce. It wouldn’t work well for grapes, I think – the roots on my vines are supposed to go down around 30m (100ft).

Still, Bruce could have fresh local-grown strawberries – that does reduce the food miles.

By: Iggy Dalrymple

Iggy Dalrymple — Mon, 19 Mar 2012 23:25:11 +0000

Hydroponically
Is this how Jack grew his beanstalk?

The one-acre TVSF is expected to yield 2.5 pounds of strawberries per plant in this, its third year of operation. That would be 112,500 pounds of strawberries. They will be sold at three dollars per pound, producing $337,500 in total revenue for the one acre for the year.

The family’s traditional row farm yielded about 18,000 plants per acre, Feitz Jr. said, and each plant in the mature farm produced about three pounds of strawberries. (The vertical farm is heading toward a three-pounds-per-plant yield.) The row farm’s 54,000 pounds of strawberries per acre, at three dollars per pound, generated $162,000 per acre, per year in total revenue.

http://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-farm-of-the-future-will-grow-plants-vertically-and-hydroponically/

By: Bob Norman

Bob Norman — Wed, 21 Sep 2011 00:11:47 +0000

The ability to have cheap electricity will greatly change farming. People can afford to pump water and irrigate crops. The cost of electricity prohibits much of the irrigation. Food could be grown in warehouses year around. Famine can be a thing of the past.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 09:54:46 +0000

What kind of power:weight ratio will the optimized Rossi engine likely have? Any thoughts on energy density?

I’m dreaming of personal aircraft powered by E-Cat engines that could fly you around the globe on one fill up.

Kind of like this, but with its capabilities vastly expanded: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w2mmx71DqfQ

By: brucefast

brucefast — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 16:01:59 +0000

Jonathan, you are correct when you recognize that the rossi only produces heat. However, I don’t think you are up to date with your other concerns.

First, if you check you will find that gasoline and diesel engines are considered to be heat engines. It is the expansion of the gas caused by the heat of its combustion that is extracted by the engine for motive energy. And in truth, neither gasoline nor diesel engines are very efficient at it.

Second, your fear that we will have to revert to vehicles that huffs out steam and need to be refilled with water is very out of date. The “rankine cycle” steam engine uses a quantity of water (or other fluid) but recycles it. Likely no more liquid is required than is in the radiator of a car. There are two kinds of rankine cycle engines, piston and turbine. The turbine engines have the better power to weight ratio, but they tend to be noisy, whiny. The piston rankine’s are much better at putting out a variable output power. However there are other ways of producing variable power. In addition to the rankine, the stirling cycle engine uses a gas, rather than air (usually helium in efficient stirling engines). Stirling engines have the potential for very high power to heat ratios, but tend to suffer in the power to weight department.

Neither of these engines, the rankine or the stirling, however have experienced the kind of optimization that the internal combustion has. I expect that whatever engine becomes the norm will prove to be much more efficient than the current state of the art.

This whole topic is something I have put a lot of energy into. I will be writing a post about it during the upcoming week.

Bruce

By: Jonathan

Jonathan — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:54:54 +0000

The problem I can see with the Rossi, apart from people who don’t believe it can work, is that it creates heat, whereas a hydrocarbon based internal combustion engine, turbine engine or jet engine creates motion directly. To convert heat into motion, you need a steam engine, which is fine for generating electricity, it is what coal and nuclear power stations do at the moment, but it isn’t really convenient for transportation, where you would have to carry round large quantities of water. That is why we use expensive oil as transportation fuel rather than cheaper coal. Electric cars? Well they have been the next big thing for about 200 years now, since before the diesel engine was invented, so I’m not holding my breath.

By: Renzo

Renzo — Sat, 16 Apr 2011 14:27:22 +0000

Large-scale hydroponics cultivation would become cheap (instead of a niche market), that means fresh vegetables all year round and the end of famines. New hydriponics advancements may improve yeld and easy of use. Perhaps one day all new houses will have an “hydroponic room” like today the have telephone line or a bathroom, and each household would grow most of its food.

By: Rockyspoon

Rockyspoon — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 19:16:47 +0000

Regarding the generation of fresh water–in the last LENR Symposium, researchers presented a paper that talks about that. However, rather than take the traditional methods of creating fresh water out of salt water, they showed how LENR could be used to transmute the elements in the water that are considered “salt”, bubble those off, and the product would be fresh water. Pretty revolutionary, eh?

By: Mirco Romanato

Mirco Romanato — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 02:10:11 +0000

Another use is to generate gamma rays.
With a gamma ray owen it is possible to sterilize with gamma rays food, medical devices and likes.