/r/Futurism
A subreddit focused on the technological advancements and scientific breakthroughs that will shape the future of humanity.
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/r/Futurism
I have been doing independent research into the composting process. This started when I remembered finding a compost pile in a neighborhood park. I remembered putting my hand on the pile and being surprised that it almost burned me. I remembered this experience, and thought this could be the basis for a reactor. A relatively small amount of material can give out significant amounts of heat for sometimes months at a time, and in the end what you are left with is clean life giving soil. https://compost.css.cornell.edu/physics.html
"A well-designed indoor compost system, >10 gallons in volume, will heat up to 40-50°C in two to three days. Soda bottle bioreactors, because they are so small, are more likely to peak at temperatures of 30-40°C. At the other end of the range, commercial or municipal scale compost systems may take three to five days to heat up and reach temperatures of 60-70°C. Compost managers strive to keep the compost below about 65°C because hotter temperatures cause the beneficial microbes to die off. If the pile gets too hot, turning or aerating will help to dissipate the heat."
Now here is where it gets interesting, because in theory you could run pipes through a pile to extract heat. The limiting factor to how big the biological reactor was heat build up. Furthermore the pipes could act as a supporting network to limit the weight that each part experiences. So this reactor could be on a municipal level and it could be entirely underground and invisible from above. You could drive anything from a sterling engine to a straight up thermoelectric system. If you wanted to really get a good bang for your buck you would take the co2 the pile gives off and then combust the methane with oxygen to drive a compression cycle to convert the co2 to super-critical co2. This sCo2 would then be run through the pipes to drive a turbine to make electricity.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Energy_density
I know some may question why this would be better. I would point out that traditional oil/gas/coal power plants require supplies of refined and processed fuels. This requires on the other hand food waste, and some general biological materials. I'm sure at a minimum a person could help heat their house with a compost bin in the basement assuming it was adequately ventilated to make sure co2 and methane doesn't build up. It doesn't put off that much at small scales. People do composting in bins all the time without problems. It's just if you were heating a home you would have to factor this in. On a small scale you could use a nitinol heat engine to make electricity. https://sci-supply.com/memory-metal-heat-engine-nitinol-wire-engine/
I'm just wondering if anyone has modeled this. It would be interesting to see a simulation of this. Maybe it might even make people wake up to the existential threats we face. I think all it will take is the start of regional prolonged wet bulb to push the electrical grid past its breaking point. I know some parts of the internet have either a back up power source or are powered by renewable energy. So what happens as the infrastructure hasn't collapsed but the world is still dying?
I am working on a Speculative design project which takes place in a dystopian future of 2080 where the remaining humanity (survivors of nuclear war) is going through a nuclear winter. Food, Water and atmosphere is contaminated with radioactive waste.
Let's say that the survivors are living in Nuclear bunkers which is safe from contamination. Already existing water resources are contaminated, there are acid rains, the global temperature is so cold that the lands are covered in snow.
This is the world building and scenario so far
I am focusing on the consumption of drinking water in this scenario.
Ofcourse, Advanced water filter system which turns radioactive water into safe drinkable water is an obvious solution but what about the energy resources to power such filterarion system? How scientifically knowledgeable is the common man to know how to operate this filterarion system? Etc, there are so many plotholes in the logic.
Nuclear experts, I need your knowledge to see beyond what I am seeing. What do you think is the logically accurate scenario of drinking water consumption in a Nuclear winter of 2080?