This outdoor air conditioner runs on Liquid Nitrogen | Rare Techy

Propane powered patio heaters suck. Treehugger has complained about them for years, with contributor Sami Grover calling it “stupid” to ask the most obvious question about their survival: “If it’s not warm enough to be outside, why do you why not move in?”

But as the world gets warmer and the summers get hotter, we’re faced with a new obsession: patio air conditioners. No patio heater or patio heater seems silly in the pandemic world, many people don’t want to move into it.

Most so-called outdoor air conditioners are evaporative coolers with large electric fans that blow across water and cool, moist air. The amount of cooling depends on the air movement, so it takes more than 5,000 cubic feet per minute of air and 430 watts of electricity to run the fan. Since the air is more humid, it is less effective at keeping people cool on the patio.

Now, an Israeli company has a better idea: an outdoor air conditioner that you don’t have to install. The Kenshō from Green Kenoko is filled with liquid nitrogen. CEO Tal Leizer told the Israeli tech website, NoCamels, “We’ve created an outdoor air conditioner that doesn’t need electricity. It generates its own energy. We use liquid nitrogen as little as possible. more than 196 degrees. It turns into gas and creates a very strong. pressure and we use that pressure to activate a mechanical engine.”

In fact, it has a very high pressure, and nitrogen has a water-to-air ratio of 1:694 at 68 degrees Fahrenheit. This is smart. We can only use evaporated liquid nitrogen to create pressure that drives the fans, releasing nitrogen-nitrogen gas. (Treehugger reached out to the company and has not heard back.)

“We are now calculating the carbon footprint. We are using liquid nitrogen, an oxygen product designed for hospitals. Our device emits nitrogen, an inert gas that we breathe,” said Leizer.

The point here is that liquid nitrogen is a byproduct and has no footprint. Leizer continued: “Compare that to other air conditioners and air that is toxic and polluted. We don’t have air pollution. We also don’t use electricity. An electric air conditioner just warms the air. e not add heat to the air.”

However, liquid nitrogen, which is widely used in industry, has its own carbon footprint. A European study found that it takes 0.549 kilowatt-hours to produce one kilogram of water, Israel’s electricity is not very clean, with a carbon footprint of 560 grams of carbon dioxide per kilowatt-hour. .

We do not know how much liquid nitrogen the device uses, but it is dangerous to say that the device “does not release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, so it does not increase the temperature of the world.” But even in Israel, the electricity supply is getting cleaner all the time, and so is the water nitrogen.

Kenshō also does not add moisture to the air, so the air has to cool less to cool the body, and it works in all weather conditions. Evaporative cooling does not work in New Orleans, but this cools the air and cools it down again.

The Green Konoko website is a major contributor to climate change, stating:

“Our goal is to create a cooling solution that not only enhances people’s outdoor experience but also contributes to the environment and helps address global warming. Our solutions technology environmental challenges such as greenhouse gas emissions, energy consumption, noise, and moisture. construction.”

This is about adaptation—fixing the effect but not the cause of the problem. What is needed is more definition, which the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change describes as “human intervention to reduce sources or enhance sinks of greenhouse gases.”

Maybe Green Konoko could find some solar power to run the machines and some refrigerants to cool the nitrogen. So they work to adapt and mitigate. But I need to calm down and stop complaining—this idea is really good.