X-Message-Number: 12052 Date: Sat, 03 Jul 1999 12:10:19 -0700 From: Jeff Davis <> Subject: Re: Cryostasis Careers Dear Mr. Brown, I was delighted to see your posting to the cryonet --#12042: cryostasis careers yet? [David M Brown], where you wrote: >i am >a cryogenic technician by trade. i maintain and repair air >separation plants, dewars, high pressure systems, rechargers,... I have a question that you might be able to help me out with. To my knowledge, the cryonics organizations do not make their own LN2, but purchase from outside sources. I have often wondered if a reduction in suspension cost might be achieved by a cryonics organization that made its own LN2; that, in fact, established an affiliated business located, say, in the mojave desert, (perhaps using long-term uninterruptable, reliable, and free (yes, there are non-trivial capital costs) solar energy) that produced liquid nitrogen for sale in the LA, San Diego, Pheonix, Tucson, and Las Vegas areas, and at the same time maintained a patient storage facility on the same site. Such a facility could be jointly operated by any or all of the the current cryonics oganizations, thus permitting an across-the-board reduction in suspension costs. The facility could be built and operated by members on a volunteer or suspension-for-work exchange basis--a sort of cryonics kibbutz. The possibilities are endless. (Heck, to take it just a bit over the top, you could turn the place into a cryonics theme park and winter season snow-bird resort. "We treat you special. All the way to the future." Those retirees are all potential suspension clients.) On the internet, I found the advertisments shown below. >Pos. 29 - LIQUID OXYGEN AND NITROGEN plant; yield 26 TpD; process equipment skid > mounted; shutdown 1989 and kept under nitrogen mothball; build in 1965 and in 1987 > > installed new: 1/ Molecular sieve (twin beds), 2/ Hi-pressure heat exchanger, 3/ Non-lub > Teflon ring expansion engine. > > Pos. 26 - CRYOGENIC GAS plant (skid mounted); yield: 30 MMCFD;. price: 900 000 US $ I've sent off for more details on the above, to further my investigation, and I wonder if you might help out with my ongoing "analysis". I'd like to find out what it costs to run such a plant, and what the market for and price of the output would be. I wonder about energy costs, and how a dedicated solar energy system might effect costs, and how such a system might be employed as a direct power source (no conversion losses) for the LN2 plant. I gather, from your posting, David, that you're exploring career opportunities. This might be something you could build into a career, while at the same time making a significant contribution to the advancement of cryonics. Best, Jeff Davis "Everything's hard till you know how to do it." Ray Charles Rate This Message: http://www.cryonet.org/cgi-bin/rate.cgi?msg=12052