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Post by the light works on May 9, 2014 17:37:10 GMT
was thinking yesterday about the various exhaust filtration schemes carmakers have done for diesel emissions - and my mind drifted to the peanut butter diamond myth - and it occurred to me to wonder what it would take to convert diesel engine exhaust to some form of precious stone.
mind you this is not about whether it is effective, practical, or even cost effective - just about whether it is possible, and how much fuel would have to be burned to get enough carbon to create a precious stone.
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Post by Cybermortis on May 9, 2014 19:43:17 GMT
Depends on the size of diamond you want. Educated guess would be a couple of gallons - less than 1% of diesel fuel remains unburnt, that is 'carbon', and a gallon of diesel contains 2.77 grams of pure carbon.
You could do the maths from that.
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Post by the light works on May 10, 2014 0:47:01 GMT
Depends on the size of diamond you want. Educated guess would be a couple of gallons - less than 1% of diesel fuel remains unburnt, that is 'carbon', and a gallon of diesel contains 2.77 grams of pure carbon. You could do the maths from that. no, I couldn't. but somebody else might be able to. We're also talking about using energy from the diesel to operate the process - which would probably consume extra fuel as well. a couple gallons seems like an awfully low estimate to me. |
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Post by silverdragon on May 14, 2014 7:00:44 GMT
How big do you want the stone?....
And if that sounds like the length of a piece of string, the G standard is 27 inches.
Yes it can be done, its carbon, however, like all carbon, you are going to need a lot of heat and a lot of pressure to get Diamonds.
I believe to get a flawless 1 carat diamond from pure carbon, the actual machinery required and the cost of getting that diamond, the cost of industrialised production far outweighs buying them from normal sources.
Plus, the act of filtration to get carbon from diesel fumes.....
I have done this, and its scary.
Some basics I pondered on.... and tried....
First, heat.
The heat of the exhaust is a worry, as it melts anything plastic, and sets fire eventually to anything like cotton.
So metal is perhaps the only material you could use as a filter.
Fine metal mesh.. yes.
Now how do you get the carbon OFF the metal?...
Wash it, and collect the washings through a cotton filter....
You can see, its going to be a long involved build.
Filtration of fine particles is a speciality of mine, as I keep a pond, and getting gin-clear water is a speciality job....
I learnt much from my time serving live barrels of beer.
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Post by the light works on May 14, 2014 14:08:55 GMT
How big do you want the stone?.... And if that sounds like the length of a piece of string, the G standard is 27 inches. Yes it can be done, its carbon, however, like all carbon, you are going to need a lot of heat and a lot of pressure to get Diamonds. I believe to get a flawless 1 carat diamond from pure carbon, the actual machinery required and the cost of getting that diamond, the cost of industrialised production far outweighs buying them from normal sources. Plus, the act of filtration to get carbon from diesel fumes..... I have done this, and its scary. Some basics I pondered on.... and tried.... First, heat. The heat of the exhaust is a worry, as it melts anything plastic, and sets fire eventually to anything like cotton. So metal is perhaps the only material you could use as a filter. Fine metal mesh.. yes. Now how do you get the carbon OFF the metal?... Wash it, and collect the washings through a cotton filter.... You can see, its going to be a long involved build. Filtration of fine particles is a speciality of mine, as I keep a pond, and getting gin-clear water is a speciality job.... I learnt much from my time serving live barrels of beer. the exhaust filters on the fire engines have some form of high tech ceramic element. and no, as I understand it, industrial manmade diamonds are not more expensive than natural diamonds if produced in quantity - it is the whole economies of scale equation. |
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Post by mrfatso on May 14, 2014 15:46:27 GMT
As I Understand it, they are significantly cheaper than mined diamonds, but the diamond mining groups have spent significant amount to A) develop ways to distinguish natural from manmade, B) to persuade the public of the pedigree of natural diamonds being supperior to man made. It is for this reason that the ma made tend to be more used for Industrial purposes and not in jewellery.
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Post by the light works on May 14, 2014 16:03:52 GMT
As I Understand it, they are significantly cheaper than mined diamonds, but the diamond mining groups have spent significant amount to A) develop ways to distinguish natural from manmade, B) to persuade the public of the pedigree of natural diamonds being supperior to man made. It is for this reason that the ma made tend to be more used for Industrial purposes and not in jewellery. the gemstone industry is, at heart, selling celebrity. as evidence; consider the current popularity of colored diamonds - a generation ago, those were considered defective and had a fraction of the value of clear diamonds. now, because the industry has agreed to call them special, they sell for much more than they used to. |
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Post by Cybermortis on May 14, 2014 16:54:42 GMT
Manmade diamonds are smaller than those that you can dig out of the ground, and usually (although not always) lower quality. This makes man-made diamonds practical for industrial uses, such as on cutting machines, but not jewellery.
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Post by the light works on May 14, 2014 17:11:14 GMT
except if there is something about the provenance of the manufactured diamond that makes it special... www.npr.org/2014/01/19/263128098/swiss-company-compresses-cremation-ashes-into-diamondsas for manmade diamonds usually being smaller and with reduced quality - I suspect part of that is that it takes more (cost) to make bigger, better diamonds, and if smaller lower quality diamonds are good enough for the purpose, there is no reason to spend extra to make them better. |
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Post by mrfatso on May 14, 2014 17:12:43 GMT
Manmade diamonds are smaller than those that you can dig out of the ground, and usually (although not always) lower quality. This makes man-made diamonds practical for industrial uses, such as on cutting machines, but not jewellery. Whilst certainly at the high end of jewellery making large diamonds worth millions of pounds are used, for most people who buy a small engagement ring worth hundreds of pounds, or small clusters of diamonds, synthetic diamonds are more than adequate. Even back in the 1980s, at the New Lywell Society, Proffesor Howie used to give a very interesting lecture on Gem stones once a year, to new members and about the methods of the Cartels in inflating prices. Bidding for sealed bags that could not be inspected , which would contain some good stones but also some terrible ones . |
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Post by the light works on May 14, 2014 17:21:49 GMT
Manmade diamonds are smaller than those that you can dig out of the ground, and usually (although not always) lower quality. This makes man-made diamonds practical for industrial uses, such as on cutting machines, but not jewellery. Whilst certainly at the high end of jewellery making large diamonds worth millions of pounds are used, for most people who buy a small engagement ring worth hundreds of pounds, or small clusters of diamonds, synthetic diamonds are more than adequate. Even back in the 1980s, at the New Lywell Society, Proffesor Howie used to give a very interesting lecture on Gem stones once a year, to new members and about the methods of the Cartels in inflating prices. Bidding for sealed bags that could not be inspected , which would contain some good stones but also some terrible ones . lower grade jewelry does, as I recall, now use a lot of lab created (I.E. manufactured) gemstones, and I think it includes diamonds for diamond cluster jewelry. part of the deal is the gem industry managing to maintain the cultural view that manufactured gemstones count as cheating. |
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Post by silverdragon on May 15, 2014 5:06:16 GMT
If you want a large man made flawless diamond, the setup cost of producing it is more than the cost of buying natural.
If you continue in production, you (may) eventually break even.
But I dont think they guarantee high quality.....
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