I feel like if I went back into my highschool chemistry or physics textbook I’d be able to rummage up the answer, but maybe one of you has this knowledge at your fingertips.
What’s cheaper for cooling a jug of ethanol for me? Dry ice or liquid nitrogen?
Approx local price is
Nitrogen is $8/L
Dry ice is $4/kg
The liquid nitrogen is 2.5x as cold (-197c?) and just with some super presumptious math I feel like I get better bang for my buck with the liquid nitrogen, but there’s some thermal capacity calculations I haven’t touched on yet.
I agree wholeheartedly, but I’ve got a couple obstacles in the way.
I’m near maxed on my power in my building and the next upgrade is at 35K to run an an additional line in.
Lab freezers are still expensive. In the meantime I still need to get stuff cold to make money to save money when I can afford the equipment.
Do a search for a place that does co2 cleaning of food and or electrical companies. I did and lucked out. $1/lb for small small small pellets. Like a few sizes (3x) above a cooked grain of rice.
I’ve heard those things waste way too much co2 to be cost effective vs just buying made dry ice. But to be fair, this was from my dry ice supplier. Curious to see if anyone actually had success with these or similar units for getting their cost down?
The current capacity for the warehouse complex I’m in is 1800A 3phase shared over a number of suites. There’s a small chance they can pull an extra 50-100A from the existing hookups if the capacity isn’t maxed, but the electricians/engineers would need to run a number of tests. On the low end it would be about $6-8000 to put in a sub-panel if I can squeeze out a bit more. The other option is getting a new service line into the warehouse complex and it’s been quoted anywhere from $28-45K on the job for the new main.
I think the price of each is a direct reflection of how much energy it takes to create. In other words the amount of energy spent to remove enough heat via pumps and compressors from that nitrogen to make it liquid is probably double the amount of energy needed to turn co2 into a solid.
If you think in terms of energy spent to make each product I think the price is probably pretty close to one a other I think the real question is how could do you want to get.
I’m high maybe that won’t make as much sense later.
I had a similar thought. There’s some delta coefficients and thermal capacity of these materials in question. I was just hoping someone had a quick mind for this kind of thing rather than me re-learning some long lost knowledge for myself from a decade ago.
If I had to give you a guess it would be that the liquid nitrogen would transfer heat better being that it’s a liquid but I have nothing the back up that claim and I only come to that conclusion because I know you can pick up dry ice barehanded if your quick about it but trying the same thing with liquid nitrogen wouldn’t be fun.
Seems a bit expensive if your close to the mains. I recently brought in 3 phase, 400a @ 480v. Power company charged 19k for the 6 poles(it was a long run), cables and three cans installed. I did most of the work inside the warehouse so my electrician charged 3k for the underground + breaker panels + meter panels.
I’m in a notoriously expensive city
I’m sure with the right used freezer and electrician plus a bit of my own elbow grease I could get the cost down another 30-50% on the job.
I only make My own dry ice for the coldtraps on the SPD rig for that iT is great
Dry ice on demand and ready in 5 min
No ice wasted to siblimation waiting to be used
I am now in search for the real dry ice making machine for use in rural areas
Since the carrying allong of chillers is darn shitty
Holy shit dude you need to find a bulk supplier of dry ice! I pay 47cents per pound delivered and the guy threw in a 45L tank of LN on the house to get me to switch from previous supplier who had me at 50cents per pound picked up!
