Re: Nanotech garbage processor?


Hi Scott,
What you describe sounds like a universal disassembler. Whilst i'm the
first to admit that i'm not an expert such a device would take a great
deal of engineering to accomplish.

I would envison the following changes to your design:

The garbage would be dumped into a funnel with large mechanical teeth
that shredded the garbage down to 1cm^3 pieces. A second set of teeth
would then further reduce the garbage down to smaller and smaller
pieces with subsequently smaller teeth. All this can be accomplished
using current technology of course.

This resultant fine grained "mulch" would then come into contact with
the disassembler. I would envision this as not a disk but a cylinder
with the first garbage interface being a set of manipulators which
broke the garbage into individual molecules which are then passed to a
second layer via some type of transit system that is capable of moving
the bulk materials around between "patches" of specialised
disassemblers for each type of molecule. Of course some materials will
be harder to break down that others and things like stone or even
common salt would be very difficult to disassociate. The bonds in the
molecules would likely be stronger than the arms themselves.

I would expect that the atoms that COULD be disassociated and refined
to pure materials could be transported out of the disassembler and the
remaining "ash" could then be extracted and used in other applications
(construction industry as a "filler" for concrete blocks?)

As to WHEN, I would expect such a complex machine to be one of the
very last inventions of the nanotech age, and by the time we are at a
position where we COULD invent such a garbage disposal system we would
no longer need it. Garbage would be a thing of the past given most
products would be manufactured in such a way that they could be easily
recycled.

If we did want to go ahead with the plan I would estimate it would be
at least 50-75 years before we would see the technology that would
make it feasible.

Gordon



On Feb 19, 5:40=A0pm, STJensen <RecreationalPo...@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
NANOTECH GARBAGE PROCESSOR: A large flat plate of what appears to be
glimmering metal or diamond is located at a city's garbage disposal
center in a special highly-guarded room. =A0Outside this special room in
a neighboring room, a garbage truck backs up and dumps its contents
onto a conveyor belt. =A0The conveyor belt transfers the garbage to the
special room and drops it onto the large shiny plate. =A0As soon as the
garbage hits the plate, the plate shimmers and the garbage
disappears. =A0To the casual observer it appears to be a magic trick.
The observer can see underneath the plate and only empty space is
there, but anything dropped onto this large shiny plate disappears as
if falling through science fiction dimensional door. =A0In another room
next to the special room are rods and vats that grow or fill up as
garbage is dumped onto the plate in the special room. =A0The rods are of
pure solid material and a different type each. =A0The vats of different
liquid or gaseous chemicals and a different type each.

UP CLOSE: Zooming down to the microscopic level, we see the plate is
covered with countless pairs of robotic arms. =A0Videotaping the arms
and slowing them down to a speed that the human mind can follow, we
see the garbage falling onto the plate. =A0The nano-arms become
activated when the garbage is almost upon them. =A0As the gravity pulls
the garbage down to the nano-arms, the pair of arms reaches up and
strips the garbage apart atom by atom and stuffs those atoms into a
hole between the arms. =A0The nano-arms reaching up and out to cover an
area that is above the area that equals the area their installation
covers. =A0They don't seem to be sensing anything but simply repeating a
pattern as if expecting something to fall over their entire area and
they simply working that entire area over and over to grab at whatever
comes into contact with them. =A0Each set of nano-arms on the plate
doing likewise and the entire plate's surface covered by these pairs
of arms.

Zooming into the hole between the nano-arms, we see another nano-arm
pulling the dislodged atom into the hole and down it. =A0It passing the
dislodged atom to another arm and it passing it to still another until
it reaches what looks like a river of dislodged atoms all being pushed
along by a long line of nano-arms. =A0Following this very rapid stream
of dislodged atoms, it eventually travels what seems like to the
observer like many miles.

Eventually, we see new sets of nano-arms that have the addition of
some kind of a sensor just behind their tip. =A0These new nano-arms do
the same as the previous nano-arms except whenever the arm comes into
contact with a specific element. =A0When that happens, the arm diverts
the dislodged atom down a different pipe. =A0A number of such arms go
after the same element and pushing it down a network of pipes to a
main pipe for that element. =A0For the first many arms down this new
pipe, similar arms like the new one move the dislodged atom along.
Very very rarely, one of these arms detects that a dislodged atom
isn't like the element of their stream and it ejects that atom from
the stream and another set of nano arms returns it to the main river
again. =A0The main river of dislodged atoms forms a loop and the atoms
are moved around and around this loop until they are diverted into one
of the off-shoot pipes. =A0There are no exceptions. =A0Eventually, the
loop of dislodged atoms disappears.

Of the dislodged atoms that are of the same element that are traveling
down the off-shoot pipes, they eventually either get dumped into a vat
or made part of a rod ... depending if they're a solid, liquid or gas.

Once all the garbage disappears, the conveyor belt stops and a bar
sweeps over the plate. =A0We see at the microscopic level that the arms
on the plate are not moving but there are arms on the bar and they are
moving. =A0The bar's arms seem to be checking the plate's arms and
repairing any that were damaged. =A0This sweeping of the bar is very
fast. =A0With time to spare, the bar has swept the plate before the next
garbage truck can dump its load on the conveyor belt and the whole
process starts over again.

END RESULT: Garbage in, pure elements out. =A0No landfills. =A0Perfect
recycling.

How far are we away from this reality? =A0What can already be done?
What is yet to be developed?

Scott Jensen


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Relevant Pages

  • Nanotech garbage processor?
    ... NANOTECH GARBAGE PROCESSOR: A large flat plate of what appears to be ... covered with countless pairs of robotic arms. ... pulling the dislodged atom into the hole and down it. ...
    (sci.nanotech)
  • Re: Nanotech garbage processor?
    ... strips the garbage apart atom by atom and stuffs those atoms into a ... hole between the arms. ...
    (sci.nanotech)
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