Renaud et. al.,
I looked for a good open source cover story on the Byrnes et. al. EEH paper to help the general reader of this thread navigate around the paywall. Here is a well written article in Phys.org: *Physicists propose a device to capture energy from Earth's infrared emissions to outer space* Mar 03, 2014 by Caroline Perry (Phys.org) —*When the sun sets on a remote desert outpost and solar panels shut down, what energy source will provide power through the night? A battery, perhaps, or an old diesel generator? Perhaps something strange and new.* *Physicists at the Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) envision a device that would harvest energy from Earth's infrared emissions into outer space.* *Heated by the sun, our planet is warm compared to the frigid vacuum beyond. Thanks to recent technological advances, the researchers say, that heat imbalance could soon be transformed into direct-current (DC) power <http://phys.org/tags/power/>, taking advantage of a vast and untapped energy source.* *Their analysis of the thermodynamics, practical concerns, and technological requirements will be published this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.* *"It's not at all obvious, at first, how you would generate DC power by emitting infrared light in free space toward the cold," says principal investigator Federico Capasso, the Robert L. Wallace Professor of Applied Physics and Vinton Hayes Senior Research Fellow in Electrical Engineering at Harvard SEAS. "To generate power by emitting, not by absorbing light, that's weird. It makes sense physically once you think about it, but it's highly counterintuitive. We're talking about the use of physics at the nanoscale for a completely new application.".* I personally find the work of Byrnes et. al. to be an elegant example of science as they did not take for granted even one of the most basic concepts normally employed in the consideration of energy conversion. Providing the proper trans atmospheric platform for their system may, in turn, help solve a pressing problem in the important area of reducing Polar Stratospheric Cloud (PSC) coverage. If we accept that the Byrnes emissive energy harvester (EEH) will provide significant DC current and that there is a significant temperature differential between the polar tropopause/stratospheric regions and space (clearly there is), then the use of this form of energy conversion may be usefully coupled with atmospheric DC corona effect ionization means/methods for increasing precipitation of the PSC cover. Here is a non-peer reviewed paper which provides a useful primer on the the DC corona ionization subject written by Phillip Kauffman<http://weathermodification.org/publications/index.php/JWM/article/viewFile/185/231> et. al.. The use of electromagnetic radiation to reduce PSC coverage has been discussed within this geoengineering group before<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/geoengineering/ludijashNO8/OeeSHknPfZIJ>. As an important side note, the Kauffman paper needs to be read with the comments from Dr. Latham<https://groups.google.com/d/msg/geoengineering/ludijashNO8/OeeSHknPfZIJ>, on the subject of electromagnetic forcing of precipitation, firmly in mind. As you can see from the link to the past posts, there was an attempt at conceptualizing a new approach to electromagnetic forcing of PSC precipitation involving the use of swarms of electrostatic blimps. The electrostatic blimp swarm (EBS) would act as (macro scale) negative ions within a largely positive ion field, which PSCs are, to generate clumping of the PSC particles and thus forcing precipitation. As the EBS would need to be on station for months (or years) at a time and be able to travel rapidly and continuously, the primary technical problem with using the EBS method was the issue of energizing them. The Bynes EEH concept seems to offer an elegant solution to the energy concerns and the EBS system can be designed around the EEH system. There seems to be a number of interesting design approaches to a EEH energized EBS aircraft. I have a background in aviation mechanics and have working knowledge relative to the experimental aircraft field including tethered aviation. Of hand, I can think of three distinctly different EEH based aircraft design concepts. I have learned from past experiences, however, that this geoengineering forum is not the proper place to cover technical level aviation related issues (no common knowledge base/interest). However, please let me know if your ERM group has an interest in the conceptual level design details of a perpetual EEH energized EBS airframe/avionics system(s). Best regards, Michael On Wednesday, March 19, 2014 4:42:02 PM UTC-7, R Kiesgen de_Richter wrote: > > Complementary explanations: > > The total "direct" IR energy transfer from the Earth surface to the outer > space would increase by the technologies described in this PNAS article, *by > the atmospheric window (8-13 µm)*. > > > In fact “*Radiative cooling*” can help to cool down the Earth by several > ways: > > a) complementary to the albedo modification effect of "white roofs", which > works during daytime. “*Clear sky night radiative cooling*" is > complementary and increases the amount of IR that leaves the Earth by the > atmospheric window (8-13 µm) *during night time*. > > Recently efficient daytime (and night time) radiative cooling has been > proposed by Stanford scientists (=> Rephaeli E, Raman A, Fan S (2013) > Ultra-broadband photonic structures to *achieve high-performance daytime > radiative cooling*. Nano Lett 13(4):1457–1461.) > > b) reducing the use of air conditioning, reducing urban heat island, > saving energy and reducing CO2 emissions > > c) increasing the yield of power plants: if the cold source is 15° lower > => the increase of Carnot efficiency enhances electricity production with > the same amount of CO2 emissions (=> paper from Ming et al ) > > d) renewable energy production (=> the PNAS article by Capasso and other > Harvard scientists, but this is only theoretical for the moment) > > e) etc. > > > <https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/-BB7yCuyX1-M/Uyopxx8_s4I/AAAAAAAAABQ/t7Wrawwd5LA/s1600/Radiation+Budget+600px.JPG> > > > > Le mardi 18 mars 2014 21:01:38 UTC+1, R Kiesgen de_Richter a écrit : >> >> Dear Group, >> >> Renewable energy can be generated whenever heat flows from a hotter to a >> colder body. One such flow is from the warm surface of Earth to cold outer >> space, via infrared thermal radiation. Physicists at the Harvard School of >> Engineering and Applied Sciences envision a device that would harvest >> energy from Earth’s infrared emissions into outer space. Heated by the sun, >> our planet is warm compared to the frigid vacuum beyond. Thanks to recent >> technological advances, the researchers say, that heat imbalance could soon >> be transformed into direct-current (DC) power, taking advantage of a vast >> and untapped energy source. An emissive energy harvester (EEH) is a device >> that can generate energy from emitting thermal radiation* into the clear >> sky. * >> This new paper pubished in PNAS >> http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/02/26/1402036111.short. >> <http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2014/02/26/1402036111.short>BYRNES, >> Steven J., BLANCHARD, Romain, et CAPASSO, Federico. Harvesting renewable >> energy from Earth’s mid-infrared emissions. *Proceedings of the National >> Academy of Sciences*, 2014, p. 201402036. >> >> This technology and several others are also proposed in the following >> open access paper http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.rser.2013.12.032 by Ming, >> T., de_Richter, R., Liu, W., & Caillol, S. (2014). Fighting global warming >> by climate engineering: Is the Earth radiation management and the solar >> radiation management any option for fighting climate change?. *Renewable >> and Sustainable Energy Reviews*, *31*, 792-834. >> Regards >> Renaud >> >> Le samedi 25 janvier 2014 00:18:52 UTC+1, R Kiesgen de_Richter a écrit : >> >> Dear All, >>> >>> In SRM strategies, high-albedo surfaces are proposed to reduce solar >>> heat gains by reflecting an increased amount of solar energy. At ground >>> level the “cool roofs” and surface albedo change strategies very well >>> described by Alvia Gaskill (a former very important contributor to this >>> group) seemed sometime ago very promising. >>> >>> A very complementary technique to cool the Earth could be a strategy >>> using night sky cooling surfaces that can pump heat away by radiative >>> cooling to the atmosphere and get rid of the heat directly into outer >>> space. The longwave energy is removed directly by transmission through the >>> atmospheric window. >>> >>> When protected from wind, by clear sky and dry weather, heat transfer >>> from ground surface by IR radiation is much faster than air convection, so >>> a net cooling of the ground can occur resulting in well above air >>> temperatures. >>> >>> This can be used to store at night, cold water for the daily use of >>> cooling buildings: >>> >>> http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/publications/pdf/fsec-cr-1771-08.pdf (short >>> version), >>> >>> http://www.fsec.ucf.edu/en/Publications/pdf/FSEC-CR-1882-11.pdf (long >>> version) >>> >>> Parker, D. S., Sherwin, J. R., Hermelink, A. H., & Center, F. S. E. >>> (2008). NightCool: A Nocturnal Radiation Cooling Concept. *2008 ACEEE >>> Summer Study on Energy Efficiency in Buildings*, 209-222. >>> >>> Don't you think that large scale development of similar technologies for >>> night time can be quite complementary to the daytime “cool roofs, cool >>> paints, cool coatings, cool pavements, cool roads…” strategies? >>> >>> >>> >>> In the Earth radiation budget diagram showing incoming solar radiation >>> and earth outgoing IR radiation, can this type of heat transfer be >>> assimilated to an increase of the “atmospheric window” pathway? >>> >> -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
