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Low cost geo-engineering and actual field tests
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The cost to construct a Stratospheric Shield with a pumping capacity of 100,000 tons a year of sulfur dioxide would be roughly $24 million, including transportation and assembly. Annual operating costs would run approximately $10 million. The system would use only technologies and materials that already exist—although some improvements may be needed to existing atomizer technology in order to achieve wide sprays of nanometer-scale sulfur dioxide particles and to prevent the particles from coalescing into larger droplets. Even if these cost estimates are off by a factor of 10 (and we think that is unlikely), this work appears to remove cost as an obstacle to cooling an overheated planet by technological means.
1/20th Scale Testing of Aerosols to the Stratosphere was funded but the actual test called off
British researchers supported by the U.K. government were attempt to pump water a kilometer into the air using little more than a helium balloon and a rubber hose. The experiment, which was to take place at a military airfield along England's east coast, was meant as a test of a proposed geoengineering technique for offsetting the warming effects of greenhouse gases. If the balloon and hose could handle the water's weight and pressure, similar pipes rising 20 kilometers could pump tons of reflective aerosols into the stratosphere.
In May 2012 this first field test was cancelled altogether in agreement of all project partners. Dr. Matthew Watson, the project´s lead scientist, named two reasons for the cancellation: First, involved scientists had submitted patents for similar technology, presenting a potentially significant conflict of interest. In addition to that, concerns about the lack of government regulation of such geoengineering projects were raised Although the field testing was cancelled, the project panel decided to continue the lab-based elements of the project.
See more and subscribe to NextBigFuture at 2012-11-26 16:22:49 Source: http://nextbigfuture.com/2012/11/low-cost-geo-engineering-and-actual.html
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