A scientist at the University of Akron in Ohio has applied for a patent on an idea that he and his colleagues believe could reduce the destructive power of hurricanes. The concept involves using jet airplanes to disrupt the complex airflows and other atmospheric activity that produces the power of hurricanes.
Arkadi Leonov says the balance of forces in a hurricane are surprisingly delicate. His proposal involves flying supersonic jet aircraft in concentric circles around a hurricane eye.
Leonov’s patent proposal describes the way in which the shock wave of sonic-booms would raise air pressure in the eye, disrupting the upward flow of warm air that drives the hurricane.
The contention is that even a small number of aircraft could do the job, specifically two F-4 jet fighters flying at approximately Mach 1.5 are sufficient to suppress, mitigate and/or destroy a typical sized hurricane/typhoon.
Flying in and out of hurricanes is nothing new. The first flight into a hurricane to measure its forces was in 1943. Prop planes have been performing this function ever since, although satellites have taken over many of the functions.
As is often the case, researchers toiling in relative obscurity in a lab somewhere have a breakthrough that touches the lives of everyone on earth. That could well be what is happening at the University of Dayton, in Ohio, where an engineerig professor has made a discovery that could make fuel cells economical.
Hydrogen-powered fuel cells are believed to hold enormous promise as a power source for future generations. Think of a time when petroleum no longer dominates world affairs. Instead hydrogen is king. It is the most abundant gas in the universe and the simplest element known to humans.
Standing in the way has been platinum, an expensive catalyst needed to make fuel cells function. The eureka in Dayton has been the development of carbon nanotubes that could replace platinum and finally make fuel cells economical. In the future fuel cells generating electricity could power everything that presently requires gasoline.
Heading the work in Dayton is Liming Dai, a materials engineering professor. Dai and his colleagues make electrodes by depositing carbon-nanotube arrays on a composite film of polymer and carbon nanotubes. They claim that using the material as a cathode gives four times higher current densities than do conventional platinum-coated electrodes.
The auto industry has built a number of idea cars powered by fuel cells. They perform well but the obstacle to mass commercialization has been the cost of platinum. Hail hydrogen.
It has the highest energy content of any common fuel (about three times more than gasolne). It is safe and can be produced from a variety of sources, e.g. water, fossil fuels, and biomass, and, conveniently, is a byproduct of other chemical processes.
