Long days and no time to write. I've just finished writing the background events for the second half of the 1895, which should see a drastic divergence from OTL. No story yet, and I doubt I'll have anything ready before February.
Economic pressures and bearable living conditions should lead to an earlier migration to the drier states. Maybe it wouldn't have the magnitude or the same dynamics as in OTL, but the development of a solar industrial hub around the Rio Grande area would naturally lead to a development of a rail network to distribute the products of such industry, especially bulk products such as distilled atmospheric gasses or cryogenically treated machine parts and tools.
The copper in Chile is extracted from chalcopyrite and a compound called Atacamite, a crystalline copper oxide similar to the one that gives statues their green look.
While I am still nowhere near knowledgeable enough to speak with confidence on the subject, it appears that chalcopyrite can be thermally decomposed into copper oxide (CuO), which can then be further refined into metallic copper by using carbon monoxide or molecular hydrogen.
Interestingly, theres one paper that addresses the idea of using solar energy directly ("Thermal Decomposition of Copper Sulfides Under Concentrated Irradiation" by Helena Winkel), which demonstrates that it is viable to directly decompose chalcopyrite into copper in an inert atmosphere, at temperatures above 1914 K. The metallic copper should be further refined using other processes.
As for the liquid air as an energy storage system, the main issue would be insulation and not pressure. The liquid is stored below its' liquefaction point at normal pressure, so it shouldn't need specialized equipment in that regard. Keeping it from boiling before it can transformed into work will be the main problem.
As for the energy density itself, it is nowhere near as compact as fossil fuels, if for no other reason that the temperature differential for the working fluid will never exceed ~200 K, which in turn means more fluid will be needed to perform the same amount of work. It would still be more dense than batteries, but the bulkiness of the system might limit the use as smaller scales.
Entrepreneurs like these will probably shape the Solar Industry once it arrives to the United States. And given that Thomas Edison* is in contact with Isidora Goyenechea (as in OTL), him and his team adapting it to the necessities of the United States seems the most natural path in this timeline.
It wouldn't be very effective, both because the amount of liquid air needed to cause damage is rather large (the Leidenfrost effect keeps the skin out of contact with the liquid, acting as insulation), and because it doesn't compete in terms of damage to what an incendiary or explosive charge could do.
Although, it might be useful as a firefighting method: a concentrated barrage of liquid nitrogen could serve to cool off an area. It's probably very expensive and impractical, but I do like the idea of bombarding a forest fire into submission.
Economic pressures and bearable living conditions should lead to an earlier migration to the drier states. Maybe it wouldn't have the magnitude or the same dynamics as in OTL, but the development of a solar industrial hub around the Rio Grande area would naturally lead to a development of a rail network to distribute the products of such industry, especially bulk products such as distilled atmospheric gasses or cryogenically treated machine parts and tools.
The copper in Chile is extracted from chalcopyrite and a compound called Atacamite, a crystalline copper oxide similar to the one that gives statues their green look.
While I am still nowhere near knowledgeable enough to speak with confidence on the subject, it appears that chalcopyrite can be thermally decomposed into copper oxide (CuO), which can then be further refined into metallic copper by using carbon monoxide or molecular hydrogen.
Interestingly, theres one paper that addresses the idea of using solar energy directly ("Thermal Decomposition of Copper Sulfides Under Concentrated Irradiation" by Helena Winkel), which demonstrates that it is viable to directly decompose chalcopyrite into copper in an inert atmosphere, at temperatures above 1914 K. The metallic copper should be further refined using other processes.
As for the liquid air as an energy storage system, the main issue would be insulation and not pressure. The liquid is stored below its' liquefaction point at normal pressure, so it shouldn't need specialized equipment in that regard. Keeping it from boiling before it can transformed into work will be the main problem.
As for the energy density itself, it is nowhere near as compact as fossil fuels, if for no other reason that the temperature differential for the working fluid will never exceed ~200 K, which in turn means more fluid will be needed to perform the same amount of work. It would still be more dense than batteries, but the bulkiness of the system might limit the use as smaller scales.
Entrepreneurs like these will probably shape the Solar Industry once it arrives to the United States. And given that Thomas Edison* is in contact with Isidora Goyenechea (as in OTL), him and his team adapting it to the necessities of the United States seems the most natural path in this timeline.
It wouldn't be very effective, both because the amount of liquid air needed to cause damage is rather large (the Leidenfrost effect keeps the skin out of contact with the liquid, acting as insulation), and because it doesn't compete in terms of damage to what an incendiary or explosive charge could do.
Although, it might be useful as a firefighting method: a concentrated barrage of liquid nitrogen could serve to cool off an area. It's probably very expensive and impractical, but I do like the idea of bombarding a forest fire into submission.
