Aland Shipyard: Conference Room VII - Topic: Electrolysis of Water
Jack Henderson has always hated chemistry, and the fact that almost everything in this project was centered around chemistry was not only bad, but actually horrifying. His PDA read that this meeting was important, as it would finally solve the problems of shipping Oxygen and Water to Falster Trade Center.
"Electrolysis... of water..." he read and he frowned and leaned back in the chair. "... f...ck my life..." he mumbled... "This is going to be the worst meeting for today."
He looked around the room, most of the people here looked as if they were not exactly scientists themselves, so there perhaps was a chance that the science-geeks would word it in a way that he would understand.
Sunny walked into the room. He got an invitation from Jack Henderson due to their current status of shared research together. Any new knowledge may be of use to both of them and thus Sunny was curious to remind himself on such basic topics. He was also doing similar things so a refresher on the basics would be of use. He sat at the back of the room, not wanting to make a big scene, especially with him wearing his club's leather jacket ornamented with badges among the others in dress shirts and suits. He leaned back in his chair and listened to the lecturer, taking out his pad to take notes.
Karl had been stood in front of the display board for about ten minutes, explaining how you can turn pure water into its constituent elements. This new solution for Aland's supply was intriguing to Karl and he hoped would mean the IMG can spend more of their time hauling ore, rather than the much less profitable oxygen and water needed to keep the station going.
"So, in pure water at the negatively charged cathode, a reduction reaction takes place, with electrons (e−) from the cathode being given to hydrogen cations to form hydrogen gas. The half reaction, balanced with acid, is:
Reduction at cathode: 2 H+(aq) + 2e− → H2(g)"
He points to the board where an illustration takes place showing the reduction.
"And at the positively charged anode, an oxidation reaction occurs, generating oxygen gas and giving electrons to the anode to complete the circuit:
Which you can see happening at this location" - Karl gestures to the second part of the large diagram.
"I don't want to take up too much of your time, as it is pretty basic chemistry and I'm sure you all remember this from your school days. Any questions?"
It was the very last sentence of the chemistry-savy Mr. Blix that really got Jack to feel embarrassed for a moment... school says. School days. Chemistry. He tries to understand what the graph says, but - as his chemistry teacher told him 2 decades ago - he was not cut out for that. "... oh my God..." he moans silently and looks around the room, hoping there would be someone to ask an intelligent question because he was not able to piece one together at all.
He leaned over to his neighbour and murmurs: "Hope they get to the point quickly, when we discuss what is needed... to do this on grand scale..." he rolls his eyes, but in a way the presenting science guy would not realize.
Professor Armstrong had been called away from his top-secret research project just ten minutes ago, with no clue as to why. He clearly wasn’t impressed with the situation.
Looking around the professor noted how everyone in the room struggled with these concepts and let out a sigh of disappointment. All of a sudden everyone turned their heads, apparently that sigh has been a little too audible.
Not one to shy from an opportunity to express his intelligence the professor spoke up “So this is why I was dragged away from my project. Essentially, if we apply the right electrical current to water, chemically known as H2O, we’ll be able to convert it into its constituent products; Hydrogen gas and Oxygen”. The professor paused to look around the room, hoping that people grasped the concept.
The professor now came to the real problems, “The difficulty isn’t the chemical reaction, but rather that it requires large amounts of electrical energy. This used to be a problem, but with modern solar panel upgrades, Falster could be retrofitted to have more than enough energy to meet demands”. The professor again took a brief pause before finishing off his speech. “The other major issue would be that we would require several hundred large generators in order to produce the required amount of oxygen for the purpose we require. I would suggest earmarking space for these ASAP so the work can get started”. The professor then calmly sat back down into his chair.
After waiting for a few moments, the professor concluded “Now if you don’t mind I’d like to get back to my extremely important research”. Professor Armstrong looked around waiting for someone to signal for him to leave.
Jack was trying to follow the even more complicated explanations of the second chemistry guy, however his negative attitude towards the subject chemistry immediately made him stop paying attention the first moment that he could not follow - which was pretty fast.
Finally the talk came to practical things. "Alright..." he rubbed his Hands, looking towards his PDA. "... that's something I can work with: enhancement of our solar panels on Falster. Furthermore generators, many generators. And the space to house them." he was mumbling and taking notes on the PDA.
He put up his hand when the professors stopped talking: "... okay, alright. I won't even try to feign that I understand the chemical processes fully. However, the enhancement of Solar Panels and the implementation of more generators into Falster's electrical systems... that's something I can work with. What I need to get this thing into motion is: exact types of engines. Exact specifications of the Solar Panels. Once I have that, we can start reaching out to suppliers to get These things built and shipped." he tried to get away from the theory towards more practical steps towards the project's completion.
"You're going to need a green house of some sort if you'd want the oxygen to have a longer life cycle." Sunny interrupts from the back of the room. People look back at him with questionable glances, not expecting an Archangel to know anything about this. "What? If you breath, you're going to take in oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, right? If you were to have a green house with plant life then they would be able to exchange that carbon dioxide back to oxygen. You would put less pressure on the generators needed to generate the oxygen in the first place, resulting in basically needing less generators that you would originally have. Not to mention, you can use those plants to create some food. The point is, if you are going to go with solar energy generation, you might as well use it to also grow plants and decrease the strain on your oxygen generation because of the life cycle your oxygen can have. Not only that, but you could use the plant life as a sort of meditative area for your patients in the hospital." He concludes.
While listening to the argument and a new angle on the whole oxygen-carbodioxide system, Jack was checking his PDA for some specifics on which kind of Solar Cells would be fit best and he would already have requested an assessment from the Tech Chief of Falster on some of the widely available products that were offered on Sirian and Gallic markets. The results were promising... it wasn't even that horribly expensive.
"Ehm... yes. Dr. Emily Lindner speaking on this topic quickly. Very interesting concept about the photosynthesis-biosphere angle." a biologist answers Sunny and smiles for a moment. She gets up and her speaking time immediately starts ticking down:
"... it's also a subject that we will be dealing with in the meeting with ALG and Cryer in which we aim at improving recycling & reuse strategies. I think I am not giving too much away if I say that we cannot install a biodome here like in Freeports of the Zoners, but we plan to use algae-farming techniques to recycle CO2 into O2 again. Food on an algae basis is a byproduct." she confirms and points to the presenter, telling the machine: "Present Picture #4 of presentation #4421"
A moment later this picture appears and she explains: "Without going into details, it could look like this. But... if you are interested in more details, I would like to suggest you participate in the 14:30 meeting. Thank you, Gentlemen, Ladies." and she takes her seat again.
"I do not know why, I Karl Mate, Transport Captain Nidaros, I was invited to this meeting, that my job is to supply contracts and some bases such as Falster and Fort Siloso, besides making some convoy with old and new mining friends, and I was ashamed that I no longer remembered the chemical results allowed in the table of associations of products which are inherent in it. It may be that I learn something more from these young men of restless, searching intellect, eager for solutions that give them power and honor.
That's right !! I'll just watch them. It's beautiful to see. They're fantastic !! "
Jack was sitting next to Captain Karl Mate and they were both talking quietly while and after the biologist explained the algae part of carbodioxyde - oxygen circulation. Jack had taken Karl Mate with him as he would be helpful in the hauling contracts and it was important to makes sure that those who would execute these hauling missions knew what they were doing and also why they were doing it.
"Algae? Source of food..." Jack snickered and whispered to his neighbours. "... hey, on Siloso they get Kyushu rice to the maximum... and on Falster... soon Synth Paste with CO2-O2-Waste-Algae slime... as food." and he can't help but give a wide smirk. "I swear, letting the science geeks run our dietary plans... was a bad idea! All healthy, all green... I bet it tastes like it looks!" and someone whispered: "Can't be worse than Synth Paste" and he had to smile. "... true."
Dr. Emily Lindner was watching the small group of "no algae on my plate please" and was shaking her head with some sort of dismay, however also with the knowledge that all those that did not understand the true benefits of this step in the CO2-O2 process were just scientifically illiterate. And so she ends this part with a smirk and a comment towards that group: "Hope you enjoy your meal afterwards. I heard the mensa serves an algae food sample today..."
