Fri
31
Mar
2023
Here's an idea. So, let's say bushfires are going to go nuts in Oz next dry period as the La Nina weather system ends and we transition to a new El Nino system with loads of vegetation/fuel throughout the country's forests.
So, preparation is needed with prescribed burns happening ASAP (once the additional vegetation dries out enough) in vulnerable forests, which is probably most of them. On the 'Resources' page there is a design for the 'Oregon Hybrid' biochar kiln and Flat-Tiki 'Carbon' V3 biochar kiln (see 'Flat-Tiki 'Carbon'' page). Maybe these kilns could be deployed through some of the forests for reducing fuel load to produce biochar which could be recovered for Regenerative Agroforestry Systems (RAS) in the bush (in addition to the Terra Preta Australis produced during prescribed burns). Now that the Climate Safeguard Mechanism (CSM) from the Lower House has passed presumably it won't encounter too many hurdles in the Upper House. Most people in the 'Environmental movement' from what I can see are cautiously 'half glass full' over this policy, especially the bit where new fossil projects must pay their way to achieve 'Net-Zero' C emissions on an annual basis by purchasing C emission offsets, which could prevent many new fossil projects going ahead. But, does anyone completely understand the CSM legislation anyway other than MP Chris Bowen and MP Adam Bandt who were the main negotiators? I might actually read the final legislation after it probably passes and try to make more sense of it.
Just for a change, I'm going to be a political and environmental pragmatist (to try and break the 'cynical paradox' that my mind is currently in) and suggest some of the C emission offsets could go towards growing and building more biological/wildlife/biodiversity corridors for wildlife, insects etc which will provide them an escape route during a predicted increase in bushfires due to climate change acceleration as well as providing more ecological services. More sustainable and useful than tree monocultures. I'll even go further and suggest some fire resilient (possibly used in intermittent firebreaks) and economically useful 'Permaculture plants' could be grown (the ones that won't become 'weeds') in addition to appropriate native species in the corridors as part of an integrated RAS for some extra bush tucker, medicine and whatever else seems useful. AirSeed drone tech (airseedtech.com) could be employed to deliver seedballs. The corridors could be designed using the 'open source' and free QGIS platform. There's also a possibility for updated software (also built around the QGIS platorm) that linked emergency services, volunteers, the Military and Gov for logistics and resource deployment for floods and bushfires. I don't think anyone wants another Lismore situation.
Any comments welcome!
REFERENCES
Looks like the 'National Wildlife Corridors Plan' got archived - can't find a current web page. Possibly politically untenable but now Labor rules the country (apart from Tasmania) so it could be politically rebooted!
Mon
27
Feb
2023
POSSIBLE TECH SPECS
In the future, some parts eg.augur, could be possibly 3D printed by a Rosotics 3D printer:
https://newatlas.com/3d-printing/rosotics-3d-induction-printing/
Seawater->seawater mining->seawater wastewater->microalgae->ML strain recognition->strain isolation->strain culture->microalgae growing in raceway ponds->microalgae harvesting with machinery->protein, neutraceuticals, pharmaceuticals->waste biomass->purpose built microalgae biochar kiln (rotary/TLUD)->recovered chemicals at different temperature stages->biochar->soil->agriculture, horticulture->reversing climate change
The main engineering challenge I see with this is collecting the byproducts of pyrolysis from each temperature stage. Research, design, implementation, testing, development and commercialisation is needed!
Thu
24
Nov
2022
Waterborne disease in the floodwater is possible leading to diarrhea and dehydration and you can't drink money...preparation (or even aid in some cases) is needed:
https://lifestraw.jadavey.com.au/product/lifestraw-personal-water-filter/
Failing that (logistics over the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale period are going to be hamstrung), washed and ex-food grade IBCs with steam-activated unmilled biochar. But, where are the supplies? Maybe in the future? There are also other 'Activated Carbon' water filters on the market but will there be enough of them and can they get to the flooded regions in time?
Boiling water in a billy could work too if one can get to dry land fast enough...
But, hopefully most people will evacuate fast enough and have somewhere to stay with food and water. For those people that stay to defend their home, good luck! In this scenario, a generator might be needed too.
Purchasing a solar generator will be far more useful and standalone than a diesel generator that depends on a diesel supply chain that could be interrupted. For eg.,
https://www.bluettipower.com.au/pages/black-friday#new-black-friday-2022-id3
The above solar generators use a LiFePO4 battery chemistry for more charge cycles and better chemical and thermal stability compared to a pure Li ion battery chemistry (rookie mistake).
Tue
01
Nov
2022
Thu
27
Oct
2022
So, a follow up 'Sci-Fi thought experiment' to the 2022 ALP budget. Some holes, a couple of Liberal policies eg.fracking donations and tax cuts for the wealthy and no integrated 'climate plan' -yet.
Maybe Australia is due for a retrofit and a rebuild that could generate millions of new jobs (sorry, no modelling there. BZE is onto it).
So here we go...
A 'Climate plan' for a 'climate emergency'->Selection of future green and appropriate, mostly 'Carbon negative' technologies, with seed funding and grants made available, manufactured by
mostly Ozzie startups with some international collaborators/businesses until 2030 (an arbitrary date but who knows what manufacturing tech and designs will be available by
then?)->Establishment of industrial ecologies in reclaimed land in cities and rural regional centres (with microgrids) + 'Carbon negative' learning centres + Ecovillages for students and
'workers' (some could work remotely from home if the work situation changes) with microgrids (including 'community batteries') and transport links to the learning centres and workplaces for
bicycles, swap in/swap out battery cells for scooters->A fraction(?) of the million 'energy efficient' (open to interpretation) houses, as proposed by the ALP.
Some interesting options for building technologies and techniques are available which all need high thermal mass R values for climate-proofing rising global atmospheric temperatures and extremes...
3d printing of building materials and entire structures
*possibly using a hemp+hemp biochar+concrete biocomposite, or rather 'hempcharcrete'. In areas of flammable spinifex, spinifex can be pyrolysed for biochar (think fire stick farming). Spinifex could possibly replace the hemp for 'Spincharcrete'. Thermal mass, from what I've researched, could be an issue for these designs that seem to use a double wall for air insulation and stability however biomass insulation eg. hemp, spinifex (a fire-retardant variety), could fill wall cavities rather than air and probably get a better R value - it needs to be researched. Also, concrete needs a number of inputs from a variety of places with some energy intensive processes. But, these guys are talking about space bases so thermal mass studies need to be done in a desert then expanded on the moon, which would use regolith concrete so the results couldn't be perfectly compared. As it turns out, the company has started operations in Alice Springs, NT - in the desert. A golden opportunity for thermal mass testing and presumably more affordable housing!
Possibly suitable for bushfire prone areas. The thin concrete outer walls could possibly crack with high temperatures from a bushfire.
Milled biochar could be added to the raw clay input to make 3D printed 'Charclay bricks'. The internal geometries of the clay bricks in the above research paper (can be downloaded as a PDF) for increasing tensile strength (and possibly air cell insulation) are gobsmacking. The brick designs could be scalable for larger bricks but the size/weight ratio would need to be optimised for brickies. This could also be a 'Carbon negative' building material with the added biochar and also possible increased tensile strength which could be investigated in future research. I would would also assume this is a greener material than concrete, even with the added biochar, but more manual labour for construction of structures/houses (which may be a good or a bad thing) but could use the 'In Situ Resource Utilisation' principle for making biochar and mining clay at the site of construction with a mobile kiln eg.in a shipping container, that could be designed to fire bricks from process heat of pyrolysis of locally sourced biomass and produce biochar to add to more bricks and produce electricity to power a series of 3D printers for the Charclay brick manufacturing. Another shipping container could be dropped in carrying the brick 3D printers. There's also the possibility of building a double wall with a large air gap that can be filled with biomass insulation for more extreme environmental temperature ranges eg. arid areas. Perpetual motion, more or less with clay and biomass being the only material inputs (and everything else that is needed to build an 'energy efficient' house). Basically, it would be a high-tech mud brick operation.
Possibly suitable for bushfire prone areas - fire testing would need to be done.
-3D printed bio-based materials eg.using forestry/agroforestry waste from regeneratively grown trees.
Hemp or bamboo fibre could also possibly be used either from waste or purpose grown crops.
https://umaine.edu/news/blog/2022/11/21/first-100-bio-based-3d-printed-home-unveiled-at-the-university-of-maine/
Cradle to grave sustainability is possible with Carbon sequestration in the wood/hemp/bamboo fibre and full recyclability at the end of a house/structure's lifetime. Faster to construct than charclay bricks and greener than concrete or charcrete.
Not suitable for bushfire prone areas.
-Earthships
https://www.earthshipglobal.com/home
Until there's a shortage of used tyres ('Garbage Warrior' Michael Reynolds claims used tyres are everywhere!), Earthships could be a great option with high thermal mass for climate-proofing the country (and Planet?). Dr Martin Freney in SA is the thermal mass expert in this type of architecture known as 'Biotecture' with an Earthship BnB as a demonstration of what can be built on the small-scale with practically unlimited scaleability.
Suitable for bushfire prone areas. https://www.earthshipecohomes.com.au/bushfire-family.html
-Rammed earth, if the right soil is available is also a resource and logistically efficient way to build with high thermal mass and looks great.
Suitable for bushfire prone areas.
-Strawbale is also a resource and logistically efficient way build for high thermal mass in areas with lower humidity and access to straw and render.
Suitable for bushfire prone areas.
-Flood proofed house
A challenge for rebuilding flooded areas in Oz with flood proofed houses for future major rainfall and flooding events
There's probably a skills shortage in all of these techniques so the Gov needs to make a decision soon so builders can be skilled up in time for 2024 and beyond. Also, a number of building companies have collapsed in Australia so this could be a pathway back into business for them since supply chains for conventional materials have been disrupted around the country and there were many issues with fixed payment contracts so the Gov should think outside the box on this problem.
A million houses sounds like a very ambitious number, to the ALP's credit who wants to 'Build' a better future. High rise apartment buildings (even with renewable energy and greenery) and housing estates probably wouldn't pass the test of a sustainable Lifecycle Assessment (LCA) and the dated pattern needs to change anyway. With effective planning (people, spatial information, logistics, finance, auditing, data analytics and project management and team software to avoid another 'Pink bats scheme'/Home Insulation Program) it could be achieved. The number of new houses needed (as a fraction of the million houses, for the industrial ecologies) will be low during the construction phase of industrial ecologies (houses for business builders so why not start building the permanent houses at that stage and temporary prefab housing for builders building the permanent houses which could be trucked or railroaded onto site) and increase over time and possibly exceed a million houses in the long term if the demand for our technologies accelerates which it probably will, whether they be for domestic consumption or exports. Also manufacturing capacity will probably take a number of years to ramp up also taking into account future automation technologies for Industrial Revolution 4.0 which in some cases may reduce demand for 'workers' and housing.
So, linking in free education for domestic students and fee-paying international students at the world's first 'Carbon negative' learning centres for mostly 'Carbon negative' and some 'Carbon neutral' technologies, located within the industrial ecologies, for theoretical and applied STEM-Arts industrial design, R&D and commercialisation course/module learning and culture, including free (domestic and international student) internships for business admin and management and apprenticeships for design and manufacturing jobs. Learn, work and earn. This could float more boats so the graduates are industry ready for the businesses and don't have to move for their first job in the industrial ecology. See REFERENCES below for some interesting case studies.
Maybe each industrial ecology could have a theme eg. space, agricullture, urban housing etc. Also, many of the startups in the industrial ecologies could be founded by the first graduates (and beyond) from the learning centres associated with them. So, how could the initial startups or established companies be chosen for the industrial ecologies? Criteria. What criteria? A Carbon footprint of the tech's cradle to grave lifecycle. If it can be calculated that the tech is Carbon neutral or better, aka Carbon negative, then the startup/established company can join the ecology, on condition that they will make available internships and apprenticeships for the students.
How can Aussie manufacturing be fired up? With an American company? An eg. of a business that could establish itself in the 'space' industrial ecology could be a Sakuu gigafactory with the first one based in Silicon Valley. Sakuu has designed a 3D multimaterial printer which might still be at prototype stage (sakuu.com) - information is scarce about their Kavian (TM) platform and I doubt it's able to print at the atomic level. For a variation of the 'new material' previously blogged, maybe print a modified Carbon perovskite crystalline superlattice (eg.200 layers, using perovskite ink grown from Si and C rich bamboo biochar for Si-C bonds on the crystals which could achieve higher efficiencies than C perovskite-Si wafer tandem PV cells as well as possibly utilising quantum superabsorption in vertical quantum wells) bonded/layered onto a printable Polymer Derived Ceramic (PDC), with ceramic for stability, mixed with finely milled bamboo biochar powder again including Si-C bonds (found in the phytoliths present) where Si increases Li storage capacity and C increases electron conductivity and could be alternatively layered (like a layer cake) with Li for solid state battery storage, storing the energy harvested from the PVs. Ceramic powder could be imported from Japan but ideally produced in Australia. Lithium could be obtained from WA mines with local refinement in the pipeline (see REFERENCES) or possibly the Top End (but will have heavy rainfall at the mines which will probably leach sulfuric/sulphuric acid into the water sources eg.rivers, springs, groundwater) in the future (as opposed to the dominant model of sending unrefined rock to China then importing back the Lithium Hydroxide for battery production...hello high Carbon footprint, a missed value adding opportunity and an unstable supply chain though this is debatable and includes all mining commodity trading partners, not just limited to China. Supply chain instability has arguably been caused by COVID-19 leading to a downturn of many economies, a war in Ukraine, shifting geopolitics and a possible parallel economy is emerging with cryptocurrency.
Alternatively, there's Sodium mined from saltpans and seawater (as a byproduct of desalination) that could replace Lithium but suffers from a lower energy density which may not be a problem for applications when size and weight is less of an issue eg. community batteries. Transport (built into the chassis) and small electronics eg. at the back of smartphones would be the most obvious applications for the 'New material', PVs and batteries but I imagine there are many.
I just think it would be awesome if we could build our own C negative Greentech/Apptech using locally refined raw materials in Australia and even go further via mining/desal companies using carbonfuture.earth to drawdown C in a 'Carbon sink' for biogeochemosequestration which, eg., could add C/biochar to regenerative agroforestry ventures.
Students and 'workers' will undoubtedly need housing for study, work and families if they choose to have them. There needs to be a variety of house configurations for this. Maybe the students could get extremely low rent until they graduate then after securing work, enter into an interest free monthly purchase plan/agreement for a house (without rent, a conventional mortage, 'Afterpay' or credit cards), buying it from the Gov. Rental could still be an option too if a 'worker' does not want to enter a purchase agreement, but still at a low market rate. If people need to change jobs and move to another industrial ecology site, when housing becomes available, it shouldn't affect the payment plan i.e. it keeps going. I'm not sure what would be the best way to refund money if a payment plan is exited - maybe calculate a low rental rate for the period of tenancy and subtract it from the amount paid in the plan then return/refund the difference.
The division between work and play is blurred here and goes well beyond just 'energy efficient' housing. Sign me up for a happy, sustainable, meaningful and reasonable livelihood and existence with many of the Aussie perks. Or as Confucius famously said "Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life."
Sounds Utopian? Just about anyone can learn and work of age (assuming they are not children, retired or have a bad disability or both). Things got more urgent. This idea could be a recession circuit breaker. Better than 1950s and 1960s public housing thinking, a climate emergency with lack of planning, rising poverty, no real wage increases, rising cost of living pressures, energy price gouging, rising inflation, a broken education system that desperately needs more funding, a health system barely coping with COVID-19 (which could mutate into something worse but seems to be mutating into many subvariants and even subvariants of subvariants that don't cause severe disease if vaccinated), a manufacturing industry that is almost dead, supply chain instability, too much money printing (what about the physical economy?), a construction industry that is collapsing (like China) and a CCS fantasy (with the exception of BECCS). But, it's not all 'carnage', as Donald Trump once described the US in his first Presidential speech.
We still have Tim Tams, koalas, surf, diverse culture, each other and a whole lot more worth mentioning but too much to put in a blog!
Like a good integrated design, every subsequent industrial ecology should be better than the last one with updates and improvements. This is not a cookie cutter operation. Some of the tech used in the ecovillages could be built in the local industrial ecology and even exported to subsequent ones in different areas/regions. And of course, being the incorrigible salesman, permaculture plants could be grown around the ecovillages for biochar which probably meets the criteria of Professor Robert Pope's famous 'Human survival technology' (possibly made in a KTE and TLUD stoves) to build out regenerative agroforestry systems using circular Zai pits and swales in the ecovillage gardens for food and medicine.
Maybe aim for 2026 for the first near fossil free model/prototype (which could eventually become C negative), with a fraction(?) of the AUD$1.9 billion of fracking money (and possibly signing the 'Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty Initiative' at COP27) to get things started, which gives whoever would be mad/visionary enough to take this project on, 3 years to attract additional business investment and construction and iron out the initial wrinkles...so, where would be the best first site?
Maybe somewhere with clay (swales/Zai pits), biomass (3D printed bio-based houses; biochar, which can be used to grow more biomass + raw material for New Material/PVs/battery ceramic-C-Si anodes), high solar insolation (PV solar harvesting and testing), seawater (microalgae, desalination and Sodium as a byproduct for 3D printed Na solid state batteries) and an atmosphere (DAC for C, N, H20->H2, vodka, fertiliser etc.)! South Australia could be a good candidate, maybe starting with the 'Space' theme, given we are home to the Australian Space Agency and over 100 space-related organisations.
There is an interesting discussion around space objectives eg.Where will be the first land based space base? eg.Moon (using 3D printed regolith bricks/concrete for structures)->Launch vehicles to Venus (deep space experience and science of a possible Earth future) then eventually slingshot to Mars and establish a colony/presence.
A way out of climate breakdown is needed that can help save the Planet and may be a way in to space and beyond. In the 'Eclogue 10', by Virgil, he writes 'Omnia vincit amor'
(Love conquers all). Maybe this even applies to space travel.
REFERENCES
https://learn.ecovillage.org/course/ecovillage-design-education/lessons/meet-your-facilitators/topic/albert-bates-2/
https://masdarcity.ae/
https://www.urbanecology.org.au/eco-cities/christie-walk/
https://news.panasonic.com/global/stories/1025
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsukuba
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mawson_Lakes,_South_Australia
If we're not in a hurry...
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antoni_Gaudi
https://www.sakuu.com/
https://dug.com/smaller-faster-stronger-1-nm-chips-by-tsmc/
https://beyondoilandgasalliance.com/
https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20221110-how-australia-became-the-worlds-greatest-lithium-supplier
Wed
14
Sep
2022
In the 'climate emergency', we, if I may Grasshopper, need to understand that every additional C atom in the atmosphere beyond the amount needed for a 'safe climate' has the potential to contribute to 'climate heating', 'climate chaos', 'climate change', 'climate disruption' et al
In other words, every little thing I do matters but what I do now matters the most. Yes, many have argued, in terms of 'climate justice', that there's an historic responsibility for Carbon emissions but lets not dwell on that for now as it opens too many wounds but should not be forgotten and preferably acted upon. There is an important point to make here though - there's already too much Carbon in the atmosphere, that we need to remove, plus the additional C emissions between now and 2050 when most nations are obliged to reach Zero Emissions, which is a huge effort in itself but will not remove these historical emissions. What makes more sense is if we build into the economies Carbon negative technologies (along with a range of other strategies) so by the time we reach 2050 we may already be going 'beyond zero emissions' and achieve 'C negative emissions'.
Here's a definition of 'Carbon negative technology' that I've been working on taking a 'Cradle to Grave' approach:
"The Carbon removed and probably offset over the lifespan of the technology is more than the Carbon required to 'mine'* the raw materials, refine the raw materials, produce the final materials, build the technology with the materials, transport the technology to the user, use the technology then repurpose or recycle the technology at the end of the service life."
*which could include direct air capture (DAC) of Carbon or include biochar Carbon from biomass to produce Carbon-based materials, just to muddy the waters.
It would be great if you could make TLUD stoves and Kon-Tiki biochar kilns from a biochar-based material! 'Carbon negative' 'Green steel' would be the next best option, maybe using a BECCS power generator to produce power for 'Green Hydrogen' for Iron Oxide reduction with biochar as a by-product that can be used for many applications such as 2D/3D printed Carbon-based perovskite PV panels printed on site for additional power supply using the principle of 'In-situ resource utilization' (ISRU). The biochar would need to be milled to a fine powder then turned into printer ink for the printer.
In this scenario, a lot of sustainably and fast growing biomass near the steel mill would be needed (eg. if the mill is near the sea such as Whyalla or Port Kembla, microalgae grown in seawater ponds onshore or maybe even macroalgae/sea kelp offshore. Other products could also be refined from the micro and macro algae such as health supplements, pharmaceuticals, biodiesel, fish, livestock and human food) and extremely energy efficient Hydrogen electrolysers, like the Hysata capillary action ones, would be needed for onsite H2 production. Ideally the electrolysis would use seawater to avoid the desalination step and save time and money with less technology needed, though fluorine nanoring membranes from Japan looks very promising.
It is unclear if Hysata tech uses seawater or freshwater as this info is not on their website (even though they have a nice seawater splash screen) and they probably won't reply to my email question about it...Try doing a Google search for "recent advances seawater electrolysis". What would be interesting is if someone could invent a 'Green Hydrogen' on demand system, from electrolysis of seawater eg.plasma arc (HSA), that could produce H2 as fast as it is needed and avoid the storage problem (handy for self-powered marine transport where there is limitless seawater and space is an issue). Note, FFI is using demineralised water. Alternatively, Direct Air Electrolysis (DAE) can be used, though the tech is at it's early stages, which could be great for areas that lack any type of water but have access to renewable energy.
An activated Carbon machine (Bygen) could also be used onsite to 'activate' biochar from the generator and place it in tanks for H2 storage so there is a buffer if demand is higher than the rate the H2 can be produced which is the most likely scenario.
A sustainable 'Industrial Ecology' is possible for steel production and probably other Carbon intensive operations as well.
What's probable (Classical) or what's possible (Quantum) - or both or neither. It's probable (though I don't think any person or computer knows how probable) that much of the Planet will die with most species including us on it (the 'Sixth mass extinction') in the not too distant future (maybe in the next couple of hundred years but there seems to be a lack of scientific research that goes beyond 2100) if we don't significantly change course BUT it's possible that we and many other species can still survive for a very long time if we focus on and put all our efforts into that possibility. It becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy if we lack ambition, vision and energy. We are the 'weather makers' according to Professor Tim Flannery. Welcome to the Anthropocene! I'm frankly tired of reading about scientific probabilities of species extinctions, climate tipping points and projections of what will happen when the climate heats up. I'm now in action mode. For me, I want to now focus on possibilities like Carbon negative technology eg.biochar, regenerative agroforestry and the https://www.half-earthproject.org/. Maybe combine all three!
REFERENCES
https://grattan.edu.au/report/start-with-steel/
https://www.nasa.gov/isru
https://www.bygen.com.au/
https://www.bbc.com/news/science-environment-62838627
https://hysata.com/
https://www.hydrogensystems.com.au/project-shield-hsa/
https://ffi.com.au/technology/green-hydrogen/
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-022-32652-y
https://newatlas.com/materials/teflon-inspired-tube-desalination-membrane-water-purification/
http://www.climatecodered.org/2019/08/at-4c-of-warming-would-billion-people.html
'Radio Ecoshock' - does a great job informing the public about the latest developments in climate research. There's a whole lot of past episodes/podcasts you can tap into if you're new to this space.
Thu
18
Aug
2022
Thu
07
Jul
2022