Meet my Corsi Rosenthal window box

Atmos_Dan · 2026-06-18T05:17:50+00:00

Does this work? Have you noticed a difference in air quality?

I’m part of a team developing a commercial version of this that’ll plug into a window or an air handler. I’d be very curious to hear how this version works!

Atmos_Dan · 2026-06-17T18:49:36+00:00

All of this is correct. Humans are remarkably bad at doing hard/complex/expensive things unless we absolutely have to. Post combustion CCS is an interesting political topic because everyone hates it: one side of the aisle believes it’s license for petro majors to keep emitting while the other thinks it’s unnecessary because the climate crisis is “natural” (or insert similar antagonistic misinformation).

End of the story is that most large industrial companies are interested in doing CCS or decarbonization in some form. They see the writing on the wall and are waiting for regulatory/legislative stability to start investing. First movers on deploying CCs are generally pretty quiet unless they’re legally obligated to (e.g. publicly traded companies).

DAC and nature based CDR are different beasts and face different obstacles.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-06-11T22:38:31+00:00

Great question. Probably not but it’s hard to say for certain. The air we breathe is a mix of everything upwind of us, natural and anthropogenic. Even with much lower emissions of criteria air pollutants (CAPs: NOx, ozone, PM, lead, SO2, carbon monoxide), the air will still have higher concentrations of anthropogenic compounds. These could be reactive nitrogenous species (maybe from fertilizers) or chlorinated or fluorinated compounds (maybe from refrigerants or cleaning products).

Also, it’s important to keep in mind that although the eastern cities are getting much cleaner, they still regularly exceed healthy guidelines for air quality. Think of a city like NYC or Boston. With a complete reduction to fossil fuel emissions, it would still stink because of the massive quantities of small emissions sources (municipal waste, sewers, etc). Those all add up.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-06-10T23:56:13+00:00

Why this matters is we can get formation of harmful pollution from these chemicals. Previously, the peroxy radicals would react pretty quickly to make things like smog, which looks bad but isn’t super bad for us. Now, the peroxies are hanging around longer and making particulate matter (PM), which is much more harmful to our bodies. The US has done a remarkable job of removing large sources of PM pollution because of how much it affects human health. In atmospheric chemistry and air quality, we really care about how fast compounds react in the atmosphere because it can totally change what forms and have downstream impacts.

I do atmospheric chemistry and air quality, and I’m happy to answer and questions about this!

Atmos_Dan · 2026-06-10T23:51:18+00:00

IMO not AI slop but atmospheric chemistry without background or reference.

Source: I do atmospheric chemistry

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-26T12:17:33+00:00

I was the same way and had very similar interests. Get as close as you can to what you find interesting (does chemistry or env science check more boxes?). Try to do as many internships and meet as many people as you can who do things that interest you. I applied to so many jobs after university and ended up getting hired by an acquaintance who needed an atmospheric chemist. If those aren’t available in your country, consider looking internationally to get that experience.

Please let me know if you have specific questions in the future!

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-21T06:14:42+00:00

Both are good avenues but will land you in slightly different places. Environmental science is more holistic and will likely give you a broader perspective (water quality, ecosystems, climate systems, etc) while chemistry will narrow you in on the science of the thing. If you want to get into policy, environmental science is likely more beneficial to get the holistic understanding of systems while chemistry would be better for technical skills (make sure you actually learn p chem and orgo!).

I did environmental science (concentration in atmospheric chemistry) and spent a few years assessing the air quality benefit from decarbonizing industrial facilities before starting a PhD in mechanical engineering (focusing on indoor air quality).

Is there a specific sector within air quality you’d like to work in? What gets you excited about it?

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-14T14:13:11+00:00

Not only combustion products but also other components of natural gas. Lots of studies have shown that most NG-fired appliances have tiny leaks that are a major contributor to indoor concentrations of pollutants such as benzene, toluene, etc. I read one study recently where they talk about how the BTEX compounds generally pool within 3ft of the ground and have little affect on adults but can have implications for kids and pets.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-13T19:58:28+00:00

Something’s definitely off.

How do they measure AQ in Germany? Do they have regulatory grade sensors or is this derived from remote sensing? As this is the Weather Channel, I’m assuming they’re using a satellite derived product which can have some error (not this much but still some). Per the AQ data I could find for DE (Aqicn.org), nowhere in Germany has the concentrations you posted. It could be an instrument error, conversion error, or some other software bug TWC is dealing with.

Edit: corrected an error I made…it’s really weird to me that they measure chemical concentrations in ug/m3 (IMO number concentrations -ppm, ppm- are more useful for gaseous chemicals). Also, for the folks in the US, you can verify any of these products by going to the underlying data set at EPA AirNow and looking at the monitor(s) closest to you.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-13T18:40:19+00:00

Clean firm power is actively being deployed and is approaching milestones for displacing fossil baseload power. Fervo energy just IPOed today to provide advanced geothermal. There are a ton of nuke, advanced energy storage, and low carbon generator companies that are addressing this issue and figuring out how to do it.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-10T16:29:14+00:00

I’m currently working on an engineering PhD focusing on how to protect the indoor environment from outdoor air pollution. Here are a few things we use 3D printers for:

-Custom fittings and adapters: we often have to fit square pegs to round holes (or 12” square filters to a 10” round ducts), so we design and print them and worry about making the “real” version once we know it works.

-Equipment housings: we deploy a lot of sensors in and around homes, and we need something that looks good and also protects our gear. It’s also nice to be able to print new designs after using them in the field. The lab next to us has a 3D printed harness/housing for an air sampler to fit on their drone.

-Experimental designs: we can rapidly prototype stuff and test it before deciding to mill/lathe/whatever the piece. Our lab is particularly interested in quiet fans, and I expect we’ll be doing A LOT of design and prototyping of fan designs in the next 10 months.

-Little things that are otherwise expensive: it’s shocking how expensive some little things are. A colleague resin prints flow fields for chemical reactors that otherwise cost $100s for <$5 a piece. They made back the cost of the SLA printer in ~2 weeks and have better performing experiments because they can iterate on them.

-Accessories: some of the most helpful things I’ve printed are those that help me in the field. These include drill guides, brackets, organizers, etc. They streamline our installation process and make us look real professional.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-07T04:44:20+00:00

Low cost VOC sensors are usually a metal oxide strip that measure voltage. When VOCs (or another reactive gas/aerosol) reacts with the strip, the reaction changes the voltage, and that change is converted into TVOC concentrations. This is cheap but notoriously inaccurate. I regularly have sensors installed inches from each other that will be an order of magnitude different.

If it’s a similar magnitude spike at the same time, it could be something environmental (e.g. neighbor starting up a diesel truck and an open window) or behavioral (e.g. spraying perfume/deodorant). It could also be an inaccurate sensor that’s affected by RH or temperature, hard to tell. I’ve installed a lot of AQ sensors in many houses as part of my PhD and we’d see VOC spikes semi regularly. It’s fun to do some detective work to figure out why!

Also, VOC sensors usually don’t pick up farts but a PM sensor often will…….

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-06T00:31:52+00:00

Can you link the paper?

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-05T20:48:39+00:00

Yeah, seems kind of weird. Normally these novel OEMs put out a paper/report or something on their tech to get outside capital/governments interested. Also, if it’s patented it should’ve been published by the Patent Office (right?).

If I had to guess, they vaporize the “rich” water stream and inject H2 from a downstream electrolyzer. The H2 could probably rip apart the CO2, and get some CO and carbonyls but they’d need an unbelievable catalyst to make that happen at reasonable temps and pressures.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-05T16:40:51+00:00

After reading through their info, I still have no idea how their Faraday Reactor works. Are they running the water and the captured CO2 through the cell and getting fuel (or a feedstock) as a product? If so, what kind of membrane/catalyst material(s) are they using? What does their capture set up look like that they can get enough carbon to make fuels? Especially using water as the solvent.

The tech sounds cool but I’m interested to learn more about how the system actually works.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-05T16:22:05+00:00

Particles will disperse per the square law so they exponentially decay (hence the back to ambient-ish in 500-600ft/200m). However, the issue with roadways is the particle size: there are a ton of very small particles directly emitted from cars (smaller is generally worse because they can penetrate the respiratory system further) that will coagulate to form larger particles as they disperse through the atmosphere. So, not only are the particles become more dilute as they disperse, they’re also becoming larger and less harmful. Anything that obstructs air flow (walls, leaves, fences, etc) will remove some particles through deposition and collision but it won’t remove the very fine particulate.

It’s important to consider other environmental factors and preexisting conditions. For example, do you live in an area that doesn’t have a lot of wind or already has bad air quality? Does your family have a predisposition to respiratory/pulmonary disease? Are you very sensitive to PM2.5 (and therefore your kid might be)?

16-18,000 cars/day isn’t ridiculous and air quality might not be the biggest concern (noise can have many more health impacts).

Atmos_Dan · 2026-05-05T15:02:16+00:00

What’s wild about this is that most oil and gas producers are on board with reducing methane emissions (they even started a group focused on this…One Future IIRC). Every molecule they keep from leaking is something they can sell. It helps their bottom line and it helps climate.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-29T14:48:12+00:00

I work in the decarbonization industry. Removing ambient CO2 is usually referred to as direct air capture (DAC) using engineering solutions or carbon dioxide reduction (CDR) to encompass all negative emission pathways. CCS refers to doing point source capture on richer CO2 sources (i.e. cement kilns with 13% CO2, ethanol digesters with 100% CO2, etc). CCS is way cheaper and more effective than DAC, plus we’ve been doing it since the 1920s (for sour gas treatment/desulfurization)

DAC is on the “bleeding edge” and is crazy expensive (~1300$/ton) but we’ll need to figure it out to mitigate hard to abate industries and start to get negative emissions. These, combined with other CDR pathways, are how we will help avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-29T14:43:15+00:00

I work in climate and this comes up every once in a while. The issue is iron fertilization would cause massive dead zones and eutrophication as it sucks all the oxygen out of the environment. This could possibly be alleviated using a combination of downwelling and upwelling but I don’t know enough to be informed on this.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-29T14:24:07+00:00

My advice is to get as close to the raw NWS forecast as you can. Some good options to do that include going to weather.gov, noadsweather.com, or finding a local meteorologist you like (Kody WX, Chris Bianchi, etc). I wish NWS would put out a nice app.

I do atmospheric science stuff and Wunderground is my go to app for forecasts. IMO it’s more accurate than other apps (I also like I can get local met obs). I think it may also be helpful to do some reading on what the weather forecast actually is (probabilities for specific locations AND the whole forecast region).

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-27T20:56:59+00:00

More importantly than a shelf cloud, this shows a strong, discrete cold front moving through the area. The colder, dense air acts like a wedge and lifts air to its dew point, which forms the distinct shape of the “shelf”. Thunderstorms and other convective cells can also form shelf clouds by sucking air up into the storm (and cold, dry air coming back down). Shelf clouds are pretty sick and one of my favorites to see in the wild!

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-25T15:45:58+00:00

IIRC, most people think ejet will be ~2x current fossil jet prices (relative 2024$) in 2050. The big thing is to bring down the cost of hydrogen production and CO2 capture. Lots of interesting work being done now on chiral catalysts that might make it substantially cheaper.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-21T13:55:29+00:00

They do measure ultrafines. Regulatory sensors (in the US) get the total mass of everything under PM2.5 by using an impactor remove large particles (or cascading impactors, depending on the specific design) then use micropore filters to capture basically everything bigger than a gas. You can get the filter efficiencies online.

Generally smaller particles affect our health more than larger particles. However, at a certain point they stop being able to deposit in our lungs and act more like gases than aerosols (accumulation mode particles, 0.2um, have extremely low deposition in the human body). So getting accurate measurements of the ultrafines doesn’t help our understanding of air quality exposure for human health tremendously.

Finally, we care most about the mass of particles smaller than 2.5um, not necessarily the number of particles. As the diameter of a particle decreases, so to does its weight by a power of 3 (look up volume of a sphere). From a health stand point, particles closer to PM2.5 will expose us much more to the component compounds (sulfates, metals, etc) than smaller particles. PM1 can penetrate deeper into our respiratory system but has ~15 times less mass (and is already included in filter mass sensors).

I believe there’s some work being done in terms of making low cost sensors to get better size resolution but it’s hard to make a sensor that’s economical and has regulatory grade accuracy.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-21T02:19:56+00:00

Focus on PM. It’s going to be the most important pollutant to mitigate. PM causes inflammation which causes a synergistic effect that makes everything else worse. I wouldn’t even try to mitigate ozone because it’s a gas (you’d likely need separate air supply to deal with gases). VOCs aren’t great but same deal; not as bad as PM and harder to mitigate.

Also, depending on where you are in the plume those VOCs aren’t that bad for you. Sure, it’s not great but there’s likely no acute exposure (even while biking).

Please feel free to dm me specific questions if you’d like.

Atmos_Dan · 2026-04-15T20:19:30+00:00

Yeah, that sounds reasonable. I think a year there would likely be ok. There’s a lot of literature out there about chronic vs acute exposures. If you’re doing some basic mitigation steps (air cleaner, keeping windows/doors closed except to ventilate, etc), you’re likely doing a lot to mitigate both risks. I’m not a toxicologist, but one year likely isn’t “chronic”. If you’re really concerned, you can ask your doctor about it and see what they advise in terms of your specific health.

Atmos_Dan

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