Monday, February 7, 2011

Riddle of Energy Part 3

ECOLOGICAL MACRO ASPECTS OF ENERGY

PART III – POST MODERN LIFE-STYLE (SUSTAINABLE ENJOYMENT)

Girish Abhyankar

girish.abhyankar@gmail.

Phone: +91 9860547471

INTRODUCTION

Using solar radiation energy plant kingdom synthesises carbon dioxide, water and salts into biomass, the only source of low entropy energy for the animal kingdom on earth. Animal kingdom uses free biomass energy and enjoys! Micro-organisms completely decompose biomass back to carbon dioxide, water and salts by chemical processes and render reusable to plant kingdom. Synthesis-decomposition cycle is sustainable if the overall rates, the biomass creation and the waste disposal, are generally matched. Animal kingdom, including human society, has only role of enjoying free services – free energy and free disposal of debris. (Then why am I slogging?)

I and many others could not be socially engineered to accept concepts of enjoyment set in the industrial world. We can not enjoy work load of employment (loss of freedom) and insecurity (loss of peace of mind) caused by using energy technology excessively (industrialisation). We want net security, comfort and enjoyment from the use of external energy and so we develop post-modern life styles. These life styles are based on the scientific knowledge of energy usage: capabilities and limitations - soft technologies -, natural services and local ecosystems. These life styles are specific to geographical area, community and individuals. They are practicable any time, today and compulsorily in post industrial era.

SOFT TECHNOLOGY

Soft technology is a technology that creates very few new problems and most of them can be left to nature for recovery without accumulating harmful effects on the ecology. Soft technology, thus, ensures net security, comfort and enjoyment by matching the rate of problem creation and the rate of its natural solution/disposal.

Soft technology applications depend on user’s requirements, life style ideas, resources, social commitments and surrounding conditions. Hence, there cannot be standardisation.

Soft technology developments are individualistic and situational. If many models are developed, and they are developing, choice is easier. I present below my model.

Factors for my soft technology applications

  • Total energy input making the equipments, maintaining and running them: low
  • Energy input based on coal and crude oil as original source: minimum
  • Energy input based on local biomass: preferred
  • Self generated energy use: equivalent to my daily exercise necessary for fitness

(No drudgery, no toiling)

  • Technology: simple, based on local skills and material (Ridiculed DOMBAL or Dombalachi life-style but the acronym represents the underlying principle and the spirit. Direct and Obvious Methods Based Applications for Living/Leisure).

Self generated energy

I list my capabilities and limitations so that I can design my working environment for effective throughput (similar to work study or industrial engineering practices but with focus on self) and minimum inconvenience.

My capabilities and limitations on every day working basis are:

(Self weight 60 kg, BMI between 20 and 25, age 15 to 45 years).

I can easily and comfortably

  • Make natural, non-straining body movements such as walking and climbing.
  • Use hands for tensile load and legs for compressive load.
  • Carry load on shoulders up to 20 kg (one third of self weight).
  • Work 180 kJ per day on every day working basis (3 kJ per kg of self weight)

(180 kJ is equivalent to climbing 300 m or 1700 steps of a 30 storey building. Limited by food intake, digestion efficiency and Carnot cycle efficiency: 3.7 %.)

  • Work 600 kJ maximum (40 km walk/50 km cycling using stored energy).
  • Work at rated power output of 60 W (as many watts as self weight in kg) and deliver 10 times the rated power output (up to 600 W) momentary.
  • Work at limb movements in tune with my normal pulse rate that is when rate of work done by muscle cells and energy supply to them are matched.
  • Work in standing position for shorter duration and work sitting on chair/stool for longer duration. (Sitting on ground necessitates lifting self weight consuming my 600 J energy every time I get up).
  • Work with 50% duty cycle (equal periods of work and rest).
  • Work in ventilated environment around 250 C ambient temperature and 50 % RH.

I can not and I am not for

  • Impact load delivery.
  • High speed operation.
  • Carrying heavy load on head.
  • Often bending and holding.
  • Working in direct IR radiation (hot sun).
  • Cumbersome, repetitive work requiring attention for long periods.
  • Working under supervision.

Information in brackets is for reference. Capabilities are down rated with age and health.

I have developed few soft technologies for

Domestic water management, Cooking on any available biomass, Cleaning,

Protection from IR radiation (hot sun) when working in open, Heavy load management.

Also reviving/modifying existing soft technologies to suit my capabilities and limitations.

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