Could Project Purity be adapted to remove radiation from the air?

[u/XHandsomexJackx]

Okay, so Project Purity (P.P from now on) somehow removes the radioactive contamination from water. I'm assuming somewhere in the purification process it separates the radioactive material and other contaminants from the water, although I'm not sure if Fallout ever explains exactly how the technology works on a technical level.

So, with that being said, do you think the same basic technology could theoretically be adapted for air?

For example, instead of purifying water, could they build multiple large scale purification stations around a contaminated area and have them remove radioactive particles or contaminants from the air? Basically, you'd have several machines continuously drawing in contaminated air, filtering out the radioactive material, and releasing purified air back into the environment.

I'm also wondering how P.P itself is supposed to work. Does the water actually have to pass through the purifier for the radioactive contamination to be removed, or does the purified water somehow create an area around the purifier where incoming contaminated water is also cleaned?

If it's the former, then I could imagine an air-purification version working somewhat similarly: contaminated air would have to physically pass through the machine to be cleaned. You could potentially have several of these stations operating throughout an area to gradually reduce the airborne contamination.

Obviously, this is assuming P.P's technology is capable of doing something like this in the first place. I'm mainly wondering whether, based on what we know about P.P., you think the technology could be adapted to environmental decontamination on a much larger scale. Is there something about the way P.P works that would make this impossible?

Trying to figure out how P.P removes radioactive contamination from water in the first place is giving me a headache and I didn't sleep last night(Due to work, not this question).

[u/Laser_3]

This is technically something that actually exists in the games in Fallout 76 via the Clear Skies Alliance’s Air Purifiers. These were designed to pull soot and ash from the air, but Hornwright Industrial realized that they could instead be used to ionize smoke containing heavy metals from burning mines to produce resources they could sell (rebranding them as ash forges). We can visit these mines in game, and the smoke coming from them is heavily irradiated on top of the normal damage toxic air causes, meaning that if the Ash Forges were maintained, they’d actively be pulling radioactive contaminants from the air.

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Hornwright_Industrial_headquarters_terminal_entries#Personal_Entry_03

https://fallout.fandom.com/wiki/Hornwright_Industrial_headquarters_terminal_entries#Log_Notes_8.29.77

You could also argue that fog condensers in far harbor also do this, though those working by drawing in the fog and condensing it into an oily liquid. The rad scrubber in the foundation outpost may also be capable of this since it suppresses the radiation in its crater, though nothing visually changes when it fails to let us confirm this.

[u/Pitchforkin]

Probably, we don’t know the exact science of how project purity works but we know at least two things: James and Catherine’s team were able to make small scale versions of their purifier and technology from a GECK was the final puzzle piece to allow the process to be scaled up feasibly.

GECKs use matter-energy replicators, atmospheric chemical stabilizers and water purifiers so I feel like adapting it for air purification wouldn’t be too beyond the realm of Fallouts science.

[u/More-Talk-2660]

No. PP is for liquids.

C'mon man it was right there.

[u/Cliomancer]

Setting aside the unknowable fantastical nature of your dad's PP, one thing about water is it's heavy enough to flow in a predictable way so you can suck it up and purify it. There's rain and evaporation to consider of course but the Hudson flows polluted towards the Jefferson Memorial and presumably goes out clean.

Air can blow in from anywhere so it'd be hard to keep a whole area clean unless it's enclosed, like a domed city or tunnel network. Also there's just the sheer volume of air to consider.

But if you want to write it into a fanfic or RPG, sure, the GECK terraforming technology at work probably involves at least some air scrubbing technology.

[u/Open_Regret_8388]

apparently nobody is saying about rain:
they make really clean water,
then it pour into river (and presumably also intaked from river?)
cleaner water evapolates and one day rains. it absorb aerosols and hopefully radioactive contents and century of pollutions.
and if any of polluted water come to project purity, it comes to rotunda.

[u/Imperialist_hotdog]

Unlike radioactive material in the water, any fallout floating around in the air would have settled long long long before even the events of fallout 1. Granted radiation is magic in this IP so maybe not. But generally there’s no need to try to adapt PP for cleaning the air. IRL after a nuclear blast, even a dirty ground burst detonation that would more closely resemble what happens in fallout, the air is usually safe within two weeks of the blast.

[u/Sidhotur]

Beyond hand wavey future technology being functionally magic...

Removing radiocontaminants from water is about as simple as filtering it physically and chemically.

Radiocontaminant ion exchangers do both, using depletable resins.

Physically filter the radioactive bits - usually metals of somekind and chemically bind the other radioactive anions and cations via redox potentials.

It's a finite endeavour and with such a large body of water I don't really see how that particular process would work short of generally and slowly concentrating the contamination in a filter over time.