Ionic air cleaners

[Shrykull]

Anyone know just the volume of air one of these can filter before you have to wipe it or clean it etc? Would it be possible to make these as big ones in industrial or smoggy cities to filter the air there, or perhaps lots to filter the whole atmosphere over time?

[Natorgator]

Do those things even work as advertised?

[phongn]

They work, but not the silly ones in Sharper Image that don't have a fan.

I don't think you could possibly scale it up to the levels neccessary to clear out that much air.

[Wicked Pilot]

Anyone know just the volume of air one of these can filter before you have to wipe it or clean it etc? Would it be possible to make these as big ones in industrial or smoggy cities to filter the air there, or perhaps lots to filter the whole atmosphere over time?

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

[Stravo]

Anyone know just the volume of air one of these can filter before you have to wipe it or clean it etc? Would it be possible to make these as big ones in industrial or smoggy cities to filter the air there, or perhaps lots to filter the whole atmosphere over time?

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

Shhhhh......

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Anyone know just the volume of air one of these can filter before you have to wipe it or clean it etc? Would it be possible to make these as big ones in industrial or smoggy cities to filter the air there, or perhaps lots to filter the whole atmosphere over time?

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

Good point.

And every 'clean' way of producing electricity has enough serious problems to keep it from replacing coal, oil, and nuke power.

[Sea Skimmer]

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

That's why we need an all-nuclear world, solar just plain sucks and wind power kills endangered birds.

[Wicked Pilot]

That's why we need an all-nuclear world, solar just plain sucks and wind power kills endangered birds.

One of the things I admire about France is they're aren't big pussies like we are when it comes to nuclear.

[SyntaxVorlon]

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

That's why we need an all-nuclear world, solar just plain sucks and wind power kills endangered birds.

Geothermal could do work, in fact a good deal of the power needed, and be far cleaner than current power production.

[Wicked Pilot]

Geothermal could do work, in fact a good deal of the power needed, and be far cleaner than current power production.

Geothermal is available only in a small number of places. It is certainly worth the investment where is is applicable, but it won't make in a dent in our energy needs.

[Sea Skimmer]

Geothermal could do work, in fact a good deal of the power needed, and be far cleaner than current power production.

Except it only works in areas with high levels of geological activity of which the US has few to none. Threes no way it could replace more then a tiny fraction of existing US fossil fuel power stations, nor make any applicable dent in the hundreds of new power planets the US is going to have to build over the next couple decades.

[EmperorChrostas the Cruel]

As to the topic at hand. The filter, like all filters, will work until the gunk you are filtering out of the air clogs the filter's air flow. The filter will slowly have less and less air flow, with the law of diminishing returns.

The filter needs no fan, as the electrostatic charge acts like a force field fan.

Bigger versions of this already exsist in pollution controle of coal fired power plants.
High pressure water sprays, and electrostatic filters are called scrubbers. The water combines with sulpher and phosphorus, and the static plates take out much of the particulates that the water doesn't wash out of the exhaust.

[Vertigo1]

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

That's why we need an all-nuclear world, solar just plain sucks and wind power kills endangered birds.

That won't be viable until we figure out now to get fusion to work. As it is, we have to deal with the nuclear waste products somehow. We're running out of place to bury the stuff....and shooting it off into space will only make things worse. Can you imagine what would happen if one of those things went haywire and crashed somewhere on the surface? That'd be a BITCH to clean up.....


Those wind turbine problems would be solved easily by slapping a cage around the blades. Increasing the larger birds of prey population in that area might also help as they tend to chase the smaller birds away. Thats what they do at some airports.

[phongn]

That won't be viable until we figure out now to get fusion to work. As it is, we have to deal with the nuclear waste products somehow. We're running out of place to bury the stuff....and shooting it off into space will only make things worse. Can you imagine what would happen if one of those things went haywire and crashed somewhere on the surface? That'd be a BITCH to clean up.....

Reprocess that fuel as much as possible to minimize the waste, which can be temporarily buried. Right now access to space is not totally reliable, but perhaps in a few hundred years?

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

What will this accomplish? Electricity is required to run these things, and it will most likely come from oil or coal burning plants.

That's why we need an all-nuclear world, solar just plain sucks and wind power kills endangered birds.

That won't be viable until we figure out now to get fusion to work. As it is, we have to deal with the nuclear waste products somehow. We're running out of place to bury the stuff....and shooting it off into space will only make things worse. Can you imagine what would happen if one of those things went haywire and crashed somewhere on the surface? That'd be a BITCH to clean up.....


Those wind turbine problems would be solved easily by slapping a cage around the blades. Increasing the larger birds of prey population in that area might also help as they tend to chase the smaller birds away. Thats what they do at some airports.

Basically the only viable way out is to develop fusion reactor tech quick! Of course, we're talking about asking the same pig-headed assholes who criminalized the most versatile and useful plant in the world just because a certain variety of it makes someone feel good when it is smoked. I honestly believe that's just a cover story IMNSHO...

[HemlockGrey]

Actually Einy, I think we can safely say that the DEA and the Nuclear Energy Board(whatever) have nothing to do with each other.

[Einhander Sn0m4n]

Actually Einy, I think we can safely say that the DEA and the Nuclear Energy Board(whatever) have nothing to do with each other.

Not the Nuke guys, the old Oil Barons in those days (1937).

[Vertigo1]

Reprocess that fuel as much as possible to minimize the waste, which can be temporarily buried. Right now access to space is not totally reliable, but perhaps in a few hundred years?

Thats true. That might help calm down the anti-nuclear morons.

[Sea Skimmer]

That won't be viable until we figure out now to get fusion to work. As it is, we have to deal with the nuclear waste products somehow. We're running out of place to bury the stuff....and shooting it off into space will only make things worse. Can you imagine what would happen if one of those things went haywire and crashed somewhere on the surface? That'd be a BITCH to clean up.....

Actually there's no shortage of space to bury waste, because at least the US has barely buried any of it. Reprocessing, the US governments failure to do so created our current waste storage problem, can massively reduce the volume of waste, which must be buried while providing additional fuel. Cost wise its still a loss though and that's why the US scrapped its reprocessing plants. Russia, France and other nations however do operate such plants.

Those wind turbine problems would be solved easily by slapping a cage around the blades. Increasing the larger birds of prey population in that area might also help as they tend to chase the smaller birds away. Thats what they do at some airports.

The cage is still going to smash birds into the ground and of course any investment in wind power must also be matched with the same capacity in fossil fueled backup systems for when the wind doesn't blow sufficiently.

[Illuminatus Primus]

Geothermal could do work, in fact a good deal of the power needed, and be far cleaner than current power production.

Except it only works in areas with high levels of geological activity of which the US has few to none. Threes no way it could replace more then a tiny fraction of existing US fossil fuel power stations, nor make any applicable dent in the hundreds of new power planets the US is going to have to build over the next couple decades.

Too bad we can't be building reactors and begin reproccessing spent fuel again and using dismantled warhead plutonium in reactors.

[Shrykull]

That's why we need an all-nuclear world, solar just plain sucks and wind power kills endangered birds.

One of the things I admire about France is they're aren't big pussies like we are when it comes to nuclear.

What are the risks of it exactly, what is it that happened that caused the accidents at 3 mile island and chernobyl? I watched something once that said nuclear accounts for 40% of NYC's power.

[Traceroute]

Solar can be viable to supplement other forms, it's not completely worthless. That, and once demand is high enough, it will be MUCH more cost effective than at present.

Personally, I like the idea of using solar cells as shade in huge parking lots. Can you imagine how much juice you'd get out of a major sports arena with solar cell panels over ALL of the parking spaces? That, and your car wouldn't be 140 deg. F. when you got out.

Cleaning and maintaining such a structure would be problematic, but maybe an automated system like they had on the WTC could do the trick.

(EDIT)
It would at least provide a high enough output to power large ionic filters .... though cleaning those automatically might be a bit tougher.

[Soontir C'boath]

They work, but not the silly ones in Sharper Image that don't have a fan.

My mom wants one. Now I have to go tell her.

[Wicked Pilot]

What are the risks of it exactly,

The risk is of course the leaking of radioactive material into the surrounding environment. This is in fact an extremely small risk, much smaller than the risks associated with other parts of our life that we take for granted, like driving. It must also be noted that coal plants sent tons of radioactive isotopes into the atmosphere every year. Them and oil plants pollute the skies and contribute heavily to acid rain. The only thing nuclear facilities admit is steam.

what is it that happened that caused the accidents at 3 mile island and chernobyl?

I'm not familiar with 3 Mile, but you must remember that this accident was minor. No one was killed over it. As to Chernobyl, K-19, etc., that was because of Soviet stupidity and neglect. Western plants are built and managed totally different that those Soviet peices of shit. I'm sure someone like DW could ellaborate on the safety systems of say the Canadian facilities.

[Traceroute]

Here's some good info on the 3 Mile Island incident. Mostly due to instrument errors.