Hi All, The "Home Brew" experiment setup seems like a good idea for education/experimentation. I would like to offer a few layperson suggestions.
For the diffuser, what about using a water filtration element that filters water down to the micron level? This may produce micron sized air bubbles if you pump air, as opposed to, water through it. Here is a 0.5 micron filter cartridge costing $25 http://www.google.com/products/catalog?q=micron+water+filter+cartridges&hl=en&cid=4793115905088379626#p Attaching the bare cartridge to a air hose is something the local hardware store would help with. You can buy threaded metal tubing and use that as a rod to bolt plates to the top and bottom and simply drill a few holes into the threaded pipe section which is within the filter area. An end cap would be needed. The air hose can be fitted to the pipe with a nipple screw on adapter. The normal water pressure limit for this type of cartridge is 45 PSI which seems reasonable for hydrosol production. I would like to propose the use of a biodegradable surfactant in a controlled variant of the experiment. Soy oil is used in some medical related microbubble production techniques. A few drops being delivered into the air stream should prove interesting. This also brings up the potential contamination of air compressor oil. Most larger air compressors will put out a trace amount of oil in the air and that would be an uncontrolled surfactant. Controlling for that would seem important. The use of a hand pump would go around this, but, would you get the needed continuous pressure? Fluctuations in air pressure may produce different bubble sizes(?). This type of diffuser could be linked together to provide a long line of hydrosol dispersion. There are low cost light meters used in photography which would help provide a reliable light (opacity) reading for the experiment. A large fish aquarium would allow for the use of such a meter. Having a meter on one side and a light bulb on the other side of the tank seems like a good set up. This is more of a hunch than advice. Also, working with a local marine aquarium for the temporary use of their larger display tanks may be another educational/experimental option. The marine biology community will obviously be taking a high level of interest in hydrosol deployment. Gaining their cooperation at this stage would be important and possibly helpful in choosing an expectable list of surfactants. In a slightly off topic subject; If hydrosol deployment can be coupled to the issue of ocean acidification, the combination of the 2 may find broader support. Finding a way to deliver an PH treatment while deploying the hydrosol would seem technologically simple. Injecting small measured amounts of Ammonia (?) gas into the hydrosol air injection system could adjust PH levels in the surrounding waters. This, obviously, has many questions concerning marine life health and hydrosol stability. I only offer it as a possible variant to the proposed table top experimentation. The production of hydrosol would use the exact type of operation needed to introduce a gaseous PH treatment for wide ocean areas. The issue of bubble adhesion (growth) may possibly be addressed through manipulation of the surfactant's lamination ion load along with that of the internal air. One would be ionic, the other anionic. This.... may.... set up a tenergistic bubble structure. Here are 2 clips giving a visual of what I have in mind. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hOoCHQIyF0s&feature=related http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6I3utbJ1M8 Thus, ion manipulation of the two bubble components may produce a more resilient bubble by strengthening the surfactant lamination cohesion (compression) through static electrical adhesion to the internal air. This is pure speculation and may violate numerous known laws of biology/chemistry and general physics... Sonification of the surfactant in the presence of a high voltage current may be a possible experimental path. As surfactants are typically long chained, sonification in a high electrically stressed environment may produce an interesting experiment (or simply a beaker full of gooo). Sonification is used, however, in medical micro bubble preparations as a fluid/surfactant mixing means. The introduction of electrical stress into the process is something that I can not find background information on at this time. If ion manipulation proves out to be practical at the table top level, rigging up an experimental high throughput diffuser should be relatively straight forward. Multiple surfactant laminations are possible, but, that leads into greater complications of production, cost and possible second order chemical/biological effects within the real world. These suggestions do go well beyond the simplicity and lower cost of the bucket/penny experiment. I have no expertise in any of the chemical issues and thus may be completely off! But, I hope that they do offer some useful input. - Show quoted text - Reply Forward -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "geoengineering" group. To post to this group, send email to geoengineering@googlegroups.com. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to geoengineering+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/geoengineering?hl=en.
