Alchemy in the Desert, Diesel Exhaust into H2O 63
Carl Bialik writes "The Wall Street Journal is reporting that 'Using technologies developed for the space program, the U.S. Army is conducting an experiment that could convert the exhaust pipes of military vehicles into water fountains.' The idea is meant to help alleviate the logistical challenges presented by two essential army liquids: water and diesel fuel. A soldier in the desert needs about 20 gallons of water a day, for all purposes; 'Water gets to the front in vulnerable, slow-moving truck convoys that require armed escorts, or it is pumped from local rivers, lakes or ponds and purified by heavy-duty filters.' And maybe, in the future, it will also be extracted from diesel exhaust. The president of a company that developed the test technology tells the WSJ: 'This is one of those things where, when you first hear about it, you think the scientists have gone out of their minds. But once you taste the water, you realize the potential.'"
What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:1, Interesting)
Anyone know how the filtration system performs in regards to removing exhaust toxins(benzene, sulfates, etc)?
Grump.
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:5, Insightful)
Thanks for playing.
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:2, Informative)
However, TFA only talks about piping the exhaust through a cat and 6 proprietary filters - making it comparable to tap water.
Potable water is essentail for life. However, it doesn't mean there aren't nasties in it still. Fore example, the city water I get is primairly ground water (95%). This water has uranium in it. If this water was piped directly into homes/businesses, it would be approaching acceptable limits. So what is done about the uranium? Dilute it down with mountain runoff!
So just
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:1)
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:1)
if the filter system gets 1 bullet, it's baked and the regular soldiers who can't fix it will just die into water exhaust. maybe a bullet is even overdone, one serious bump on a "good" iraq highway and you're baked. and there is no walmart over there neither to get the spare parts
if they need water, then they better rely on thi
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:1, Offtopic)
oh yeah, a bullet in the head is nasty too.
that firms only reason to exist and get money would be in having a way to purify that water though.
Re:What about the nasties in the exhaust? (Score:1)
For me, I don't hike enough (heak I stoped ever since my JR year of college), but I just brought about 2 gal of water and it's good nuf for half done wiht pleanty to spare.
Tip: Put a gallon jug about 2/3 full into the freezer a day before departing for a long day hike. The best ice water you've ever drank!
But once you taste the water! (Score:4, Funny)
Perhaps a coffee flavoring agent for Folger's "value roast" blend, sold for office use only?
Re: But once you taste the water! (Score:2, Funny)
Not only that it's mil-spec. But one minor problem - when you go to the bathroom it smells like diesel exhaust.
Subject to interpretation (Score:5, Funny)
This could mean any of the following:
This has come out before (Score:5, Informative)
Wired has a good article on this:
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,65035,00.h
Chlorine? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Chlorine? (Score:2, Informative)
"From there, the decidedly unappetizing-looking water moves to a series of six "treatment beds," which consist of proprietary carbon filters developed by LexCarb. The first four filters strain out black gunk so that the water becomes amber. The final two filters remove remaining impurities, resulting in water that is as clean, or cleaner, than the tap water of many U.S. cities."
Supposedly, the water is "cleaner than tap water in many U.S. cities" before they add the chlorine solution. The b
Re:Chlorine? (Score:2, Informative)
I used to work for a RO company; essentially the membrane splits salty water into extra salty water ("brine") and clean product water. A simplistic explanation is that the polar water molecules split the salt lattice into ions, which get surrounded by more H20 molecules. This means you get big H20/ion clumps that can't squeeze through the membrane, and a bunch more smaller plain old H20 molecules that do get pushed through the membrane. Typically before the membrane you have some prefilters to get out the b
Re:Chlorine? (Score:1)
Re:Chlorine? (Score:4, Informative)
After the amber stage is reached, it goes through two more filters and then chlorine is added to keep the water from getting funky while waiting to be dispensed.
So chlorine isn't used as a filtering agent, more of a preservative.
Re:Chlorine? (Score:2)
To quote Colonel O'Neill: "Uh
Another preparation for war story (Score:3, Funny)
The mood in the U.S. is violent, and pro-violence, in general, it appears.
Re:Another preparation for war story (Score:2, Insightful)
Besides, military technology has always been a popular topic of discussion. The U.S. military gets all the neat toys so tech guys want to see what is cutting edge and sometimes the stuff ends up filtering
Re:Another preparation for war story (Score:2)
Make no mistake, the Chinese are playing the Great Game and biding their time till they can become a world power.
Re:Another preparation for war story (Score:1)
The Cold War pwn3d (Score:2)
Ah, radical left revisionist history! (Score:2)
Re:Another preparation for war story (Score:1)
- computers
- ARPAnet
- jet aircraft (actually British military)
- etc. other examples are all around us we don't even recognize.
Notice that many of these probably weren't invented by the military, but the military made them work.
Skeptical! (Score:3, Funny)
Alchemy? (Score:4, Funny)
It's bad when the old chemistry trick is viewed like some kind of magic...
[nontheless, this is a cool stuff, though. Beats drinking my own urine via filtering.]
Re:Alchemy? (Score:2)
Re:Alchemy? (Score:2)
AAHHH but they didn't tell you about the Transmutation Circle [toysnjoys.com] in the exhaust pipe!
Re:Alchemy? (Score:2)
No it doesn't! Dune Rulez!!!11!1
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Re:Alchemy? (Score:1)
they should hook up a urinal to the inlet of this filtering setup, and add that reclaimed water to the mix. I bet if it cleans diesel exhaust enough to drink, it ought to clean urine just fine.
Chemisery (Score:2)
CH2 + 3/2 O2 -> CO2 + H2O
An interesting thing is that the molecular weight of CH2 is 14, while the MW of H2O is 18; thus, you can recover as much or more weight of water than you supply as fuel. I seem to recall this being used on Zeppelins to replace the weight of the fuel they burned so that they would not have to vent (and later replace) lifting gas, but I am unable to find a reference with Google.
Moisture farming? (Score:3, Interesting)
They've invented vaporators!
Re:Moisture farming? (Score:1)
-GameMaster
Re:Moisture farming? (Score:2)
Re:Moisture farming? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Moisture farming? (Score:2)
Only in Iraq (Score:2)
Re:Only in Iraq (Score:2)
Patent (Score:2)
United States Patent: 6,581,375 - Apparatus and method for the recovery and purification of water from the exhaust gases of internal combustion engines [uspto.gov]
Not quite like Catalytic Converters? (Score:3, Informative)
I don't think this will work quite like a catalytic converter, which reduces he emissions into something less nasty. Rather it just extracts chemical H2O from the emissions. I was hoping for news that someone can actually convert the diesel exhaust into something less nasty. That would be a good thing.
Re:Not quite like Catalytic Converters? (Score:2)
Not true. The byproducts are C02 and H2O only if there is complete combustion. This is not and cannot be the case in an internal combustion engine -- this is a fact of thermodynamics of which I'm much stronger than Chemistry.
Catalytic convertors help the process of breaking down the hydrocarbon byproducts into more environmentally compatable compounds. I don't know the specifics, but Carbon Monoxide to Carbon Dioxide is one of them.
If the process was so perfect then there wouldn't be anything like Ozon
What?!??! (Score:1, Troll)
We all know US soldiers are spoilt, but 20 gallons is rediculous. Did the world war 1 solders shower daily? Did the Civil war veterans need Jacuzzis? Its crappy food and rationed water for all other armies, bathe when you run across a river.
"But once you taste the water, you realize the potential."
I'll probably realize the potential too. In fact once I taste THAT water, I'll probably invest in nortel and place advanced orders on Duke Nukem Forever as
Re:What?!??! (Score:3, Interesting)
I would add, though, that throughout the Napoleonic wars, and wherever in the world they operated at that time (including the Caribbean and Mediterranean), the Royal Navy's water ration was "one gallon per man, per day, for all purposes". This was an Imperial gallon, about ten US pints, but it shows what can be done if you try
Re:What?!??! (Score:2, Interesting)
Actually, in the heat, the Army wants you to drink a gallon every four hours. And living in the high desert in California, I can honestly tell you that just breathing dehydrates you because the air is so dry. And it's not even as hot as the middle east!
I would think the rest of the water is for shaving, face washing, food preparation, coffee, and cleaning. Showers aren't done too often unless you are near a base. Instead
Re:What?!??! (Score:1, Troll)
Shaving? Out to fight for your country.. and looking awesome.
Towlettes for wiping? Thats new to me.
Food prep? Coffee? thats even more luxurious than my life, all in addition to the paycheck.
If its WAR, its getting people to go and fight. Heck even uniforms are considered too formal, expensive and luxurious for armies in Afghanistan. Youre going to a place where either you or the other person will die. This becomes a matter of life and death. You dont shave, browse the web, drink coffee and watch movies
20 gallons? (Score:2)
Unless "all purposes" includes taking a shower or using a flushing toilet I'm not sure I understand this estimate. A person in the desert needs to drink perhaps 1 gallon of water a day to stay sufficiently hydrated. Where does the other 19 gallons go?
So I read TFA (Score:2)
In case no one RTFA... (Score:2)
C + O2 = CO2, and
H + O2 = H2O
Internal combustion engine exhaust is chock full of that nasty pollutant, dihydrogen [wikipedia.org] monoxide [dhmo.org]. The only new and interesting development here is someone is attempting to perfect a method to capture that H2O in a useable form, at a rate of "one gallon of water for ever
Twenty Gallons? (Score:2)
Twenty gallons a day? I think not. That's a typo. They'd have to drink almost seven pints an hour over a 24 hour period. This article [wired.com] seems more reasonable in saying they need 3 or 4 gallons a day. The article says two gallons of diesel produce 1 gallon of water chock full of sulfer, benzene, and soot. Yum! Why not just fit the soldiers with Dune style stillsuits? [wikipedia.org] They can drink their recycled pee and sweat. Yum!