Water From Wind 411
ghostcorps recommends a writeup in The Australian by columnist Phillip Adams about a new windmill design that extracts water from air. The article gives few details of how it works, because patent protection is not yet in place, but what is revealed sounds promising. "[Max] Whisson's design has many blades, each as aerodynamic as an aircraft wing, and each employing 'lift' to get the device spinning... They don't face into the wind like a conventional windmill; they're arranged vertically, within an elegant column, and take the wind from any direction... The secret of Max's design is how his windmills, whirring away in the merest hint of a wind, cool the air as it passes by... With three or four of Max's magical machines on hills at our farm we could fill the tanks and troughs, and weather the drought. One small Whisson windmill on the roof of a suburban house could keep your taps flowing. Biggies on office buildings, whoppers on skyscrapers, could give independence from the city's water supply. And plonk a few hundred in marginal outback land — specifically to water tree-lots — and you could start to improve local rainfall."
Hmmn, implied refrigeration (Score:5, Insightful)
Anything that creates lift creates a lower pressure, which in turn refrigerates, and eventually induces condensation.
A Mere Matter of Programming to model an aerodynamic shape that maximizes condensation and captures the resulting droplets.
--dave
Re:Something doesn't add up... (Score:4, Insightful)
Trees improve local rainfall, because they affect weather (slow it down, for one thing.)
Deforestation has had horrendous effects on global weather. You might have noticed that the Amazon is drying up...
Stop smoking crack naysayers (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interested.... (Score:5, Insightful)
Phillip Adams, this guy Max Whisson is your longtime friend. You give no details about how his device works, yet you ask for people to invest money with him. Is this a scam? You say you already have investors, yet you haven't managed to get a patent on this device yet, and so you need to keep the details secret. Why should we think this is anythign but a scam?
Re:sum zero gain (Score:2, Insightful)
As for the FUD about salt content increasing, there are two *huge* flaws in that line of reasoning:
1. The ocean is huge. Astronomically huge. And the water is coming from everywhere. If the ocean were to evaporate for the next 5 years without a single drop of water reaching it, via rain, river or whatever, the difference in the salt content would be negligible.
2. What do you think happens to the collected water? Do we shoot it into space? Condensing water doesn't mean it never reenters the ecosystem. By your logic we ought to stop collecting water in lakes when it rains. The water collected on these devices reenters the system the same way water that falls as rain reenters the ecosystem, either by evaporation or by drainage (rivers or sewers).
I swear, Chicken Little's got nothing on
-ShadowRanger
Re:Where's the need come from? (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Free Dry Land! (Score:2, Insightful)
We then can use it and it flows down the drain/comes off our skin as sweat/is pissed out behind the bushes where it can evaporate and then re-enter the water cycle. I don't see this "drying out" the areas around it.
Re:Interested.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Prove my speculation wrong, Adams and Whisson. Please, prove me wrong.
Re:Is This Similar To: +1, Informative (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Interested.... (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:But why not? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Interested.... (Score:5, Insightful)
IANAEE (I am not an electrical engineer) but if this thing can generate water, AND wind power...wouldn't it be a self-powered fuel cell? The process of separating the hydrogen could be powered by the wind-generated electricity it would seem. I'd love for someone with much more understanding of the physics behind this to tear apart my idea but this thing sounds damned useful. Not sure how small it could be made and still maintain its effectiveness but imagine giving a portable version of this to sailors. If you could create drinking water and electricity from this while floating on the ocean that would be a real life saver.
Re:Agreed. More hypothetical numbers. (Score:3, Insightful)
For climate change, one of these things wouldn't do much, but hundreds or thousands spread all over a desert? You could reclaim a lot of desert over time by keeping six or seven tree's roots wet repeated several hundred times. The big problem with desert reclamation is restoring stable green vegetation in an area. Stable green vegetation needs a steady water supply. This could be that supply. The small size isn't a bad thing. It means that you can pick it up and put it down anywhere, you don't need to worry about power, you don't need to worry about a lot of details.
Ross
Re:Interested.... (Score:3, Insightful)