Author: Isaac Gendler

Landfill gas

Landfill gas

Landfill gas

05/07/17

“How does our trash pollute the atmosphere?”

 

Humanity has a problem. When municipal solid waste (trash thrown out by the public) gets thrown out in landfills, it will slowly decompose. After nearly a year of being in a landfill, methane producing bacteria will begin to emerge and releases a gas known as landfill gas, which is composed of half methane and half CO2. Landfill gas is so potent that it can actually trap heat at a rate of 28-36 times that of CO2 over a 100 years period!

Landfills

Landfills

Landfills

05/06/17

“Where does trash go?”
Every second of every hour of every day humanity disposes of large volumes of trash. However, have you ever wondered where this trash goes? Well, let’s use our engineering mindsets to figure out. One very lazy way is just to dump everything under a big pile of land and cover it up to not worry about it! These systems are known as landfills and are used all over the world, from the plains of North America to the forests of Europe.

Incineration waste to energy generator

Incineration waste to energy generator

Incineration waste to energy generator

05/05/17

“Is it possible to turn trash into energy?”

 

Humanity has two problems. Our levels of waste are piling up every year, destroying available land storage space. We also do not have enough energy to supply everyone on the planet. However, what if we could solve these two problems at once? Well, let’s think about it with our engineering mindset. We know that traditional energy generation methods such as coal and nuclear power involve the decomposition of a material to heat water into steam to drive a turbine. So what if we were to simply burn waste instead? This energy generation method is known as an incineration waste to energy generator and is used all over the world to generate electricity.

Direct Air Capture

Direct Air Capture

Direct Air Capture

05/04/17

“How can we capture carbon dioxide directly from the air?”
There is a global problem. Carbon dioxide emissions from industrialization have polluted the atmosphere to the point where a worldwide rise in temperatures has been induced. However, would it be possible if we could use our engineering mindset to take CO2 out of the atmosphere? Well, let’s start by using a little bit of knowledge of basic science. There are chemicals that are able to capture CO2 through a “sticking” process while leaving other atmospheric molecules such as nitrogen and hydrogen unabated, therefore creating a barrier. And this mechanism can then be heated such that the CO2 molecules are free from the material, allowing new CO2 to come in. So what if we were to take a pool of industrial fans, stack them up in rows and columns, place a CO2 absorbing material behind it and have them suck up all of the air? This method is known as Direct Air Capture and can be used to help in the fight against global warming

Soldering

Soldering

Soldering

05/03/17

“How can we fuse two metals together?”
Imagine this scenario. You are working with some small metallic objects, and you want to merge them. However, you don’t want to work the too heavily with processes such as welding. So how can we devise a method to accomplish this? Well, let’s use our engineering mindset to solve this problem. We know that if a liquid solidifies between two objects, then it will join the two together. And we also know that solid metal is usually quite sturdy. SO what if we were to melt a metal into a liquid between these two object and then quickly solidify the object? Well, this process is known as soldering and is one of the most common methods that engineers use.

Complex fluids

Complex fluids

Complex fluids

05/02/17

“What happens when there is a fluid with more than one phase present?”
Most engineering or physics applications of fluid mechanics deal with only one phase of matter. However, what happens when there is there is a multiphase solution present, such as in shaving cream? Well, after much investigation, engineers and physicists have determined that such materials can not be treated as typical fluids and instead must be classified as complex fluids. Complex fluids exhibit often unusual stress-strain relations, are highly nonlinear, and relatively unknown. Perhaps readers of this blog will pursue research into this subject and illuminate us on this subject.

Adiabatic process

Adiabatic process

Adiabatic process

05/01/17

“Is there a thermodynamic process with no heat exchange?”
When most people think of thermodynamics, one of the first thing that pops into people’s minds is one phenomenon, heat flow. However, is it possible to have such a process with no heat flow? Well, let’s think about it. If we were to take our system and completely isolated it inside an insulator, no heat would be able to flow in or out. Therefore, all of the work done must come from the internal energy. This phenomenon is known an adiabatic process. In an adiabatic process, the pressure multiplied by the volume raised to the ratio of the specific heats of the gas is always equal to a constant (PV^(c_p/c_v)), leading to a steeper PV diagram than the isothermal process.

Isothermal process

Isothermal process

Isothermal process

04/30/17

“Can we have a thermodynamic process in which the temperature of the system remains constant?”
When working with thermodynamic systems, it is very easy for the internal temperature to change when other properties change as well. However, is it possible to have a fixed constant temperature process? Well, let’s think about how this can be accomplished. We know that when a system does work (such as a gas expanding) it will lose some of its internal energy and therefore cooling it. However, if we were to then supply heat to counteract this loss, the temperature would remain consistent, therefore resulting in what engineers and scientists call an isothermal process. In an isothermal gas expansion, the change in volume is directly equal to the number of moles present in the gas times the (fixed) temperature times universal gas constant divided by the change of pressure, which can be summarized symbolically as (Delta)V=nRT/(Delta)P. Isothermal processes are used to study highly structured mechanical systems such as Carnot cycles and chemical reactions.

Carnot cycle

Carnot cycle

Carnot cycle

04/29/17

“What is the most efficient possible heat engine?”
The Heat engine is one of the most productive inventions of humanity, allowing our civilization to take in exterior heat and channel it into useful energy. However, since there are so many different processes to choose from, which one is the most efficient? Well, let’s think about it. A heat engine cycle can be boiled down (pun definitely intended) to one core principle, an oscillation between a hot temperature and a cold temperature. One very efficient way to accomplish this is to have an isothermal process to expand the gas for a given amount and then use an adiabatic one to cool it down while further expansion takes place. Then, one can reverse this process by using an isothermal compression combined with an adiabatic one to raise the temperature and pressure back up to the original value, therefore completing the process known as a carnot cycle.