Archive for the ‘Gas Energy’ Category

Nasa Confirms Liquid Lake on Saturn Moon

NASA scientists have concluded that at least one of the large lakes observed on Saturn’s moon Titan contains liquid hydrocarbons, and have positively identified the presence of ethane. This makes Titan the only body in our solar system beyond Earth known to have liquid on its surface. Scientists made the discovery using data from an instrument aboard the Cassini spacecraft. The instrument identified chemically different materials based on the way they absorb and reflect infrared light. Before Cassini, scientists thought Titan would have global oceans of methane, ethane and other light hydrocarbons. More than 40 close flybys of Titan by Cassini show no such global oceans exist, but hundreds of dark, lake-like features are present. Until now, it was not known whether these features were liquid or simply dark, solid material. “This is the first observation that really pins down that Titan has a surface lake filled with liquid,” said Bob Brown of the University of Arizona, Tucson. Brown is the team leader of Cassini’s visual and mapping instrument. The results will be published in the July 31 issue of the journal Nature. Ethane and several other simple hydrocarbons have been identified in Titan’s atmosphere, which consists of 95 percent nitrogen, with methane making up the other five percent. Ethane and other hydrocarbons are products from atmospheric chemistry caused by the breakdown of methane by sunlight. Some of the hydrocarbons react further and form fine aerosol particles. All of these things in Titan’s atmosphere make detecting and identifying materials on the surface difficult, because these particles form a ubiquitous hydrocarbon haze that hinders the view. Liquid ethane was identified using a technique that removed the interference from the atmospheric hydrocarbons. The visual and mapping instrument observed a lake, Ontario Lacus, in Titan’s south polar region during a close Cassini flyby in December 2007. The lake is roughly 20,000 square kilometers (7,800 square miles) in area, slightly larger than North America’s Lake Ontario. “Detection of liquid ethane confirms a long-held idea that lakes and seas filled with methane and ethane exist on Titan,” said Larry Soderblom, a Cassini interdisciplinary scientist with the U. S. Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Ariz. “The fact we could detect the ethane spectral signatures of the lake even when it was so dimly illuminated, and at a slanted viewing path through Titan’s atmosphere, raises expectations for exciting future lake discoveries by our instrument. “The ethane is in a liquid solution with methane, other hydrocarbons and nitrogen. At Titan’s surface temperatures, approximately 300 degrees Fahrenheit below zero, these substances can exist as both liquid and gas. Titan shows overwhelming evidence of evaporation, rain, and fluid-carved channels draining into what, in this case, is a liquid hydrocarbon lake. Earth has a hydrological cycle based on water and Titan has a cycle based on methane. Scientists ruled out the presence of water ice, ammonia, ammonia hydrate and carbon dioxide in Ontario Lacus. The observations also suggest the lake is evaporating. It is ringed by a dark beach, where the black lake merges with the bright shoreline. Cassini also observed a shelf and beach being exposed as the lake evaporates. “During the next few years, the vast array of lakes and seas on Titan’s north pole mapped with Cassini’s radar instrument will emerge from polar darkness into sunlight, giving the infrared instrument rich opportunities to watch for seasonal changes of Titan’s lakes,” Soderblom said. The Cassini-Huygens mission is a cooperative project of NASA, the European Space Agency and the Italian Space Agency. The Jet Propulsion Laboratory, a division of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, manages the Cassini-Huygens mission for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate, Washington. The Cassini orbiter was designed, developed and assembled at JPL. The Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer team is based at the University of Arizona.

All About Liquid Organic Fertilizers

Using organic fertilizers is a widely accepted practice in the agricultural industry. Farmers use them to cultivate their field and row crops, winemakers utilize them for growing grapes, and horticulturists apply a liberal does of these during the landscaping of their orchards or turfs.
Liquid organic fertilizers are a safe and effective way of providing your plants with the best nutrient supply without harming them or increasing the soil’s acid content. Liquid organic fertilizers act as agents to effectively increase the content levels of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium. Because these three substances are the three major nutrients that plants need, liquid organic fertilizers thus provide plants with an abundant food supply essential for their growth.
Liquid organic fertilizers are especially important in helping the plants overcome the tension involved in transplanting, cold weather, or dry season. Because liquid organic fertilizers help enrich the soil, they assist in removing the risk of soil nutrient-deficiency.
There are two basic methods of application for liquid organic fertilizers – through spraying or through direct application to the soil around the plant. Spraying is the more commonly used method of applying liquid organic fertilizers. This is because plants usually take in nutrients through their leaves and stems where their stomata are located. Liquid organic fertilizers sprayed on plant leaves and stem allow them to absorb the nutrients faster.
The other method used for applying liquid organic fertilizers are called direct or tea application. Liquid organic fertilizer direct application is like adding tea to the soil around the plant. Liquid organic fertilizer direct application still has the same nutritional component as the spray type. The only difference is that with the liquid organic fertilizer direct application method, nutrients such as nitrogen and potash may be wasted because they are not easily absorbed by the plants.
There are several types of liquid organic fertilizers available in the market. The most common liquid organic fertilizer is fish emulsion. Made from ground up and liquefied fish parts, fish emulsion liquid organic fertilizer contains trace elements essential for plant growth. Fish emulsion liquid organic fertilizer also has high content level of nitrogen, the nitrate source for plants. Fish emulsion liquid organic fertilizer may be sprayed on the plant’s foliage or applied directly as tea.
Liquid organic fertilizers can also be made from earthworm castings. Earthworms play a major role in providing the soil with minerals and vitamins that help plants grow and this is what led scientists to manufacture earthworm-based liquid organic fertilizer.
Another type of liquid organic fertilizer is the bat guano. Several more manufacturers have produced liquid organic fertilizers containing any combination of the following: fish meal, soybean protein extract, rock phosphate, bone ash, potassium carbonate, magnesium carbonate, sea kelp, and humic acid.

Technology Leads To Reduction Of Nitrogen Generators’ Size

As technology improved, so did the nitrogen generator systems, and recent discoveries have led to the reducing of the nitrogen generators size.

These new-generation, small size nitrogen generators are very effective and reliable, and they operate automatically, with very little maintenance required.
The main difference between these nitrogen generators and the normal ones is the size, these small capacity units only take up 60% of the space used by a usual nitrogen generator, saving 40%.
Another difference is that these nitrogen generators do not supply a 99. 99. . % pure nitrogen, but something around 95% pure, which is not a disadvantage because most users and laboratories don’t require 99. 99. . % pure nitrogen. The nitrogen’s purity may be increased to 99. 5% if the user desires to do so, by absorbtion or, cheaper, by adding a process to the nitrogen generator, that runs the resulting gas through a special filter that reduces the oxygen concentreation from the resulting gas. Also, if the buyer requests, he will also receive vaporization systems and liquid nitrogen storage together with the nitrogen generator.

These units have been tested, and they have been found to meet al the requirements of a nitrogen generator, and they are the best and cheapest solution to many needs.

The pressure of the gas delivered by the small-size nitrogen generators can vary around 6-7 Bar(g), and it can be increased with the help of a compressor.

In conclusion, these nitrogen generators are the best solution if you wish to save space & money, and not only, they can be used by everybody because they require little maintenance, low power, they have a compact design and they can operate unattended and monitor themselves.

So as a final conclusion compact nitrogen generators are available for purchasing to everyone on the internet maket.

The APSA Process In Nitrogen Generataors

Some of the new-generation nitrogen generators use the APSA process to generate nitrogen. This APSA process relies on the fractionated distillation of air at very low (cryogenic) temperatures, and in only one column. In other words, APSA nitrogen generators are nitrogen generators that use cryogenic distillation of air to generate nitrogen.

After the air is being compressed, it is purified in the nitrogen generator, so that the cryogenic operation runs smoothly. The air is being compressed at around 9 bars with a centrifugal or a screw compressor and afterwards cooled down with the help of a cooling unit.

The air that runs through the nitrogen generator must then be purified, so it passes through several filters and cooled down some more.

Afterwards the criogenic process must intervene, so the air enters a special area of the nitrogen generator, the cooling area, and then the oxygen in the air is separated from the nitrogen. At the bottom of the area there will be a liquid that is oxygen-rich and at the top the desired nitrogen.
The low temperature inside the nitrogen generator is mantained using a small quantity of liquid nitrogen, which is then added at the produced nitrogen.

This process is designed so that it’s all automatically controlled, it requires no manual procedures. If problems occur, the nitrogen generator is created so that it will try to solve them on its own.
For example, if the nitrogen consumption increases, a pressure regulator will maintain the normal pressure. Or, if the concentration of oxygen is too high, the APSA process is automatically closed and the excess of oxygen is ventilated outside. Furthermore, the nitrogen generator waits for the oxygen levels to decrease, and if they don’t, the whole system is shut down. When this occurs, the nitrogen generator takes safety precautions.

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