AboutDavid L. Russell, PE Expertise I`m a Chemical,Civil and Environmental Engineer and have a number of projects in all phases of the environment.
I have worked in the chemical industry and am active in professional societies, and am currently on an industrial wastes committee for the Water Environment Federation, and have taught courses in remediation in the US and abroad.
I have written one book on Remediation of petroleum Contaminated Sites, and have a second book on PRACTICAL WASTEWATER TREATMENT to be published by John Wiley in September, 2006. I've also written over 30 articles on various elements of environmental problems and cleanup. Most Recently, I have addressed a NATO Scientific and Techical Conference on Ecoterrorism, and have worked with the same group on remediation of sites contaminated with Chemical Warfare Agent materials and othe materials as well. . I can answer q`s about Chemical and Environmental Engineering, land development, air pollution, water pollution, soil and water cleanup, combustion, international environmental problems, industrial processes chemical processes. Civil and Environmental and Chemical Engineering. Overall, I have over 35 years of experience in this area. Note: I do not answer homework questions
Experience I love work in the third world and developing areas
because it is challenging and one can get a sense of accomplishment.
Question If billions of people on the planet were in biostasis via cryogenic storage, would that large population cause any environmental problems? If we are talking about the carbon footprint of manufacturing liquid nitrogen big-time, what is the correct answer?
Answer Nitrogen is "manufactured" by condensing it from air. It is formed when air is cooled to - 196 C. By comparison, liquid oxygen boils at - 197 C. because the two are so close, they have to be fractionally distilled to higher purity.
I don't have the data to give you the energy requirement to condense and distill liquid nitrogen. Wikipedia cites the cost of LN2 as up to about $0.50/ L (2.206 lb), so the energy cost can't be too bad. If I had to guess, it would be something close to about 14 BTU/ Lb, and since there is an expansion ratio of about 650:1, it would take about 650 cubic feet of nitrogen (or about 1000 cubic feet of air) to be condensed for 1 cu. Ft of LN2. 1000 cu. Ft of N2 is about 71 pounds, which would require over 718*200/14 = about 11,000 BTU for cooling the LN2. So it's an expensive process. So, yes, there could be an environmental problem because of the energy required to cool the LN2.
Hope that helps. The variable I cannot estimate is how much energy it takes to cool/maintain a body with LN2
Good Luck.
