Steam Center Blog

DANGERS OF RAIN WATER HARVESTING

2011-04-20T21:32:00.000-07:00

Over the last century, human population has grown and along with it there has been a tremendous growth in cities. A direct consequence of this growth is that urban populations in many cities across the world are facing water shortages. Along with sunshine and fresh air, water is a primary requirement for life and any shortage in its supply spells a diminished quality of life.

There are primarily three sources of water available to human populations – rain, surface water such as lakes and rivers and lastly ground water. The source of all three is rain that rises from the abundant oceans on the planet. However with increasing use and population growth, both surface and ground water is not only getting depleted but also getting polluted.

Whenever water shortages occur there is often a cry to conserve water. One basic point is forgotten in this cry – WATER CANNOT BE DETROYED – by most natural processes. It requires chemical and other possesses such as electrolysis to destroy. In most cases water is recycled over and over, therefore cities facing water shortages need to reexamine the recycling processes that are taking place in the city.

A solution that has been proposed in some cities is called Rain Water Harvesting. It is suggested that rainwater should be collected and directed to deep bores inside the ground so that it reaches underground sources. A primary shortcoming of this process has been overlooked. When surface water percolates naturally to underground sources it undergoes purification through natural filtration. If it is directly sent into the ground to the water table or close to it then surface pollution reaches the ground water without the benefit of this purification. The result is that ground water is then polluted and looses its potable quality.

The alternative of directing rain water to shallow covered pits ( of no more than ten feet depth ) is an alternative since then an adequate ground depth may still be available for purification. However such pits , although good for daily domestic waste water are usually not enough to store rain water.

Incase a city desires to increase its ground water supply the alternative of storing rain water in several artificial lakes in and around a city or town is a viable option. In this case the water purifies as it percolates into the ground. It can then be pumped out to augment city supplies with minimal treatment. Further the city waste and sewage water too can be treated in a similar manner by directing it into lagoons designed to purify the water through both aerobic and anaerobic processes. Eventually some of this water percolates into the ground to improve ground water supplies. Such systems exist in several towns around the world. These lakes need to be stocked with fish in order to minimize the menace of mosquitoes. Usually, such lakes need to be aerated otherwise the depletion of oxygen in water causes the fish to die from time to time. Wind Mill driven or solar cell aeration systems are a better option than electricity driven pumps. Solar and wind devices produce intermittent electricity or intermittent mechanical power and that is what is precisely required by lakes for aeration.

Surface storage of water is therefore the proper way to store rainwater whereas the so-called Rainwater Harvesting is the improper way. One need not worry about the loss of surface water through evaporation since that tends to augment precipitation and return to ground again as highly pure water in the form of rain.

Small Community Gas Turbine Power Plants

2010-12-10T04:50:00.000-08:00

Small and simple gas turbine power plants to produce electricity for communities isolated from a grid or a community wishing to remain so can be a reliable means of power supply at reasonable rates. Such power plants need to be simple in order to reduce maintenance needs. Research engineers love to play with thermodynamics and will go to any lengths to increase thermal efficiency even if it means that the final constructed plant is complex, expensive and results in frequent maintenance shut downs. For a gas turbine plant this implies using multistage turbines with intermediate heating and several heat exchangers. While the additional complexity may be justified for large gas turbine plants where thermal efficiency has an important bearing on running costs, it is not advisable for small independently managed gas turbine power plants that range from a few kilowatts to a Megawatt capacity.

A gas turbine plant involves a compressor stage coupled to a turbine for expansion. Heating of the working fluid is carried out after compression. The fluid that leaves the turbine after expansion carries a considerable amount of heat and thermodynamic principles suggest its utilization to partially heat the incoming working fluid before compression in a heat exchanger. It is suggested here that atmospheric air be the working fluid for simple gas turbine plants and it be heated in a furnace after compression without the use of any heat exchangers. The surplus heat carried in the exhaust air can be utilized by using it as the air required for combustion in the furnace. A single stage turbine may be utilized to further eliminate the need of reheat and additional heat exchanger and stages.

The heat of combustion can then be generated by burning various materials such as wood, waste, coal if available etc. Biogas if available in the community is best reserved for cooking and heating needs. The power so generated may be augmented by partial use of wind and solar energy. The plant furnace can be enclosed in a hot chamber that can be utilized for various purposes such as a bread oven or brick making plant.

New Ice Age?

2010-12-09T04:32:00.000-08:00

The recent cold weather in Northern Europe has made me wonder if a new ice age is around the corner. If it really did come about, I wonder what that would do to the current debate on global warming. Would the world then start pushing for a more rapid increase of Green House Gases?

Personally I worry less about the release of green house gases as compared to the rapidly depleting forest and tree cover on our planet as mentioned in my other posts. I believe that unless mankind begins to work seriously to undo that damage it will be difficult to achieve stable climatic conditions.

Supercritical Steam Power Plants in Iceland

2010-11-10T21:40:00.000-08:00

Recently I chanced upon a Scientific American Article that quoted my book on supercritical steam in the article “One Hot Island: Iceland's Renewable Geothermal Power” by Christopher Mims at:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=iceland-geothermal-power&page=3
Although I was not quoted accurately, the inference of the author was correct in its conclusion that use of supercritical steam remains one of the available methods of increasing thermal efficiency of steam power plants. Increasing such efficiencies also reduces the amount of green house gases produced per unit of power generated. Although the emission of greenhouse gases is not an issue when using geothermal energy, the use of supercritical steam will nevertheless allow the maximum utilisation of geothermal energy.I am delighted that Christopher Mims has found this book useful towards making use of Iceland’s geothermal reserves in an efficient manner.

Time for New Posts

2010-10-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

I realise that I have been neglecting this blog while I concentrated on another blog of mine. I hope to return to it soon with new energy related posts. In the meantime some visitors have found that this blog has useful references to many thermal and renewable energy resources. Therefore I shall continue to retain them in future too.

Carbon dioxide is not the cause of global warming

2008-12-29T03:30:00.000-08:00

It seems that the burning of fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide is often incorrectly blamed in the media for global warming. Carbon dioxide accounts for just 0.0383% of the atmosphere. The amount is too minuscule to have any significant effect on global warming. In fact water vapor is a stronger greenhouse component of the atmosphere. In fact the percentage of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has fallen to suffocatingly dangerous levels for plants. They need it for photosynthesis and are a source of food for animals and humans. Greenhouse owners who raise carbon dioxide content about three times find that plants grow fifty percent faster.

Scientists have concluded that human activity over the last century has probably contributed to global warming. If so, then the probable cause is deforestation and not the production of carbon dioxide through burning of fossil fuels.

Energy models for Future Towns

2008-12-16T21:57:00.000-08:00

The rapid depletion of fossil fuel if not the addition of global warming gasses in the atmosphere is sufficient to indicate that current lifestyles of modern humans are not sustainable. A sustainable lifestyle would probably involve the following changes:

A return to small towns rather than living in large cities with public transportation fueled by bio-fuels and electricity.
The use of wood energy from sustainable forest plantations combined with the use of wind energy for meeting the electricity needs of the town.

When wood is burnt from forests that are periodically replenished for more wood the net carbon addition to the atmosphere is zero. New trees absorb the carbon dioxide produced by the power plant. To minimize this wood burning a substantial amount of electricity would have to be produced from wind turbines with the wood burning stepping in to fill the lull in the breeze. With a disappearance of fossil fuels in future, the use of bio-fuels would become necessary to supplement electric driven transportation. These bio-fuels would probably be too expensive for individual cars. A greater use of public transportation and perhaps just walking would become the means for movement within a town. Tree varieties exist that produces both wood and bio-fuel and perhaps even food.

Eventually if the changes visualized here take place it would be better for the health of humans. Life in a big city can be dehumanizing. These changes may be made willingly or unwillingly because it does seem that nature makes unhealthy lifestyles unsustainable in the long run forcing mankind into healthier pattern of living.

Alternative Energy

2008-07-27T22:42:00.000-07:00

The world is running out of fossil fuels for sure. As the price of petroleum crudes and coal increases, alternative sources of energy will be used in greater proportions. Besides wind energy, solar energy has been considered often as a source, but the hard facts are that laws of thermodynamics and heat transfer make electricity produced from solar energy very expensive. If one considers all the costs involved perhaps trees are the most economical solar collectors.

An electric steam power palnt can be visualised where water is first preheated to moderate temperatures with solar collectors and then to high temperature steam in wood fired boilers. In order to prevent depletion of forests this would have to be done in a sustainable manner so that trees that are cut and solar dried for wood are replaced on a continuous basis. Doing this will also eliminate the carbon footprint of these power palnt. The net carbon dioxide added to the atmosphere by such a plant will be absolutely and precisely zero. A pilot plant based on this principle needs to be constructed and studied in detail.

STUDENTS AND EXAMINATIONS

2008-07-27T22:31:00.000-07:00

Examinations are a major matter that concerns any student. We all know that things like being intelligient and working hard are important to do well in examinations. But then we find that there are students who are consistently high scorers. It is not just intelligience, there are well known techniques that help a student get a high score. There are book on the topic. For example "How to Succeed in examinations" and now even a short course conducted over the internet that a student can enroll in offered by a leading international educator. Check here

Green Solutions to Global Warming

2008-01-17T20:44:00.000-08:00

There is much concern at the present time about the increasing addition of green house gases to the earth’s atmosphere. A prominent greenhouse gas is carbon dioxide. This gas is produced when fossil fuels are burnt to produce energy for driving our automobiles or for producing electricity in power plants. It is believed that increasing addition of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere will result in adverse changes to the earth’s climate such as global warming to the extent that many presently inhabited areas of our planet will become inhabitable.

As a result of the concern caused by the emission of carbon dioxide from power plants it has been proposed that the use of fossil fuels should be restricted and a greater emphasis should be laid on alternative sources of energy such as solar and wind power.

There is however another route to reducing green house gases that may in the long run prove to be the most beneficial route towards improving the life sustaining qualities of our planet. This route is to green the planet. Carbon dioxide is to plant life what oxygen is to human and animal life. Plants need it for their growth and sustenance. Every time a tree is grown, it absorbs and converts some atmospheric carbon dioxide to useful organic materials. This absorption of carbon dioxide is rapid in the early growing phase of a tree. Absorption of carbon dioxide continues throughout the life cycle of a tree because trees continue to produce fresh foliage year after year.

Large portions of our planet have been deforested through recent human activity. While some deforestation is required for agricultural purposes there is much that can be avoided. In addition very large parts of our planet are large deserts or barren land not suitable for agriculture. These latter tracts are ideally suited for increasing green forests on earth. In ancient times they were green. It is for this reason that petroleum is found in such areas. Modern science and technology has made feasible the planting of select varieties of trees in dry desert areas. It is true that there is a cost involved in planting forests. Some of these can be recovered if the money that is being used for developing and subsidizing alternative energy sources is diverted for this purpose. More can be generated if the industries emitting carbon dioxide are levied an additional tax for forestations

The source of fossil fuels is green organic matter that once grew on earth’s surface. In ancient times this got buried under the surface and converted into coal, gas and crude petroleum oil. Bringing it back to the surface of the earth through mining is the first step towards returning this green material to the earth’s surface. The second step is its combustion to produce carbon dioxide. The final step is the conversion of this carbon dioxide to plants and trees through human effort. The green house gas emitting industry is already doing a commendable job of the first two steps of this cycle. However, we as a civilization have lagged behind in the last step towards greening our planet. Urgent attention must be given to this last step. If not done, it will result in the conversion of some of this green gas into materials such as inorganic carbonates through natural processes. Calcium carbonate is one such product. One converted into an inorganic form the carbon becomes unavailable for creating biomass. The result is a planet that is more barren than it has ever been before. Large scale planting of trees that reduce barren tracts of earth, including the Sahara Desert is the route to go if humans are seriously interested in improving our planet over the short as well as the long term.

How Thermal Power Plants can help Green the World

2007-10-06T21:30:00.000-07:00

Global Warming due to the effect of greenhouse gases such as those released by thermal power plants is increasingly becoming a matter of serious concern for environmentalists.

Another area of serious concern to environmentalists is the destruction of forests and green cover on our planet. Vast tracts of our planet are covered with desert like conditions and these tracts are increasing. A novel solution exists that can solve both these problems simultaneously. Just as animals and humans breathe oxygen releasing carbon dioxide as waste (A green house gas), trees and plants breathe in carbon dioxide releasing oxygen. Thermal power plants too release copious amounts of carbon dioxide by burning fossil fuels. IF a regulation existed (Lets call it the GREEN STEAM PROTOCOL or GSP for short) that required every operating power plant to green sufficient areas of our planet to create a green cover sufficient to absorb the carbon dioxide released by them during their lifetime the problem can be solved. Such a protocol will undoubtedly increase the cost of thermal power but the benefits to the society at large would be immense. Scientists can easily calculate the amount of green cover required for various thermal plants based on their electricity output and thermal efficiency. A GSP needs to be imposed on fossil fuel based thermal plants just as a GST is imposed on various other goods. If the amount of greening required is somewhat in excess of the actual requirement, Thermal Power Plants will become the agents of reducing global warming rather than increasing it.

The somewhat increased cost of power due to GSP will also encourage alternative power technologies such as wind and solar power to become more competitive which they are not at presentas well as encourage power plants to operate at higher supercritical pressures so as to improve their thermal efficiencies. AN increase in thermal efficiency would become more economically attractive since power cost reduction will then be due to both a reduced GSP as well as due to increased thermal efficiency.

It must be remembered that at one time the fossil fuels were trees and forests on our planet. Digging these out from the earth and producing electricity through their use combined with the Green Steam Power Protocol only helps to restore our planet to its Pristine Glory.

If you are interested in such a protocol becoming law in most countries please give your views on the matter as a comment, and help lobby for it with the appropriate forums seized with the issue. At the heart of this campaign is the visualization of a new partnership between Environmental and Engineering groups. Partnerships based on mutual help accomplish far more than confrontation

Diary of an Alien

2006-09-15T20:08:00.000-07:00

Read the Diary of an Alien from another planet here. In the first few installments the Alien talks about evolution and how life began on earth.

How to get Traffic to your Blog

2006-09-06T18:37:00.000-07:00

It is dissapointing to write something in a blog that is worth reading and then find out that hardly anyone has visited your blog to read it. That is because there are so many millions of blogsites and websites out there. There is little possibility that someone will just wander in. One way of getting some traffic to your blog is by viral methods. That is like telling someone about your blog, who tell others and so on. Try this link to find out about one such.

Another way is to join blogexplosion. This last is really a fun site where you can learn a lot about blogs and blogging as well as meet other bloggers. They review each blog personally before including it in their blog directory and system but if your site is a real blog there should be no difficulty in getting it included. Just follow the link given here.

Steam Power Plants for the Future

2006-09-03T21:09:00.000-07:00

Steam power plants are here to stay. Even if the heat source is nuclear the power plant is still a steam type. At the present time the thermal efficiency of steam power plants is limited by the fact that turbines cannot handle steam beyound a certain temperatue. However we know that the humble automobile engine handles much higher temperature. That is because it is not a turbine. Therefore in future it may become imperitive to explore rotary steam engines for the highest pressure and temperature stage of a steam power plant. These would be of the Wenkel type but with different valve opening and closing system. Lower pressure stages of the power plant can still be turbine based. And as mentioned in another post there is a possibility that power plants will return back to simpler configurations and smaller sizes. Bigger is not always better.

Steam Tables

2006-09-02T23:58:00.000-07:00

Get your copy of the latest steam tables in SI units from here. You can download a copy rightaway or order a printed copy by mail. These neatly printed tables are ideal for engineering students undergoing a course in Thermodynamics as well as for engineers in the power and steam industry.They are based on the latest standards.

SI Units in Power Industry

2006-09-02T23:36:00.000-07:00

While the entire world has switched over to SI units, it is sad the way the US power industry is still persisting with British Units. The funny thing is that even the British have switched over to SI units. They are so much more easier and convenient to use compared to the archaic British Units. The excuse that the power industry has been using is that it costs too much to switch over. That is just so much Bull. There are hardly any costs involved with the computer resources available today along with the use of decimal numbers . Afterall other countries have been able to afford it so why not the US ? No wonder the rest of the world would rather deal with Europe than USA when it comes to power issues. That is where the business and power jobs of the world are going. The US power industry appears to be just too lethargic and stuck in its ways to make the switch. Fortunately, the intellegentia, that is the scientific community in USA has switched over to SI units, but the industry continues with a crude ancient system of units that should have been shelved decades ago.....

Are Modern Power Plants too big and complicated

2006-09-02T22:26:00.000-07:00

I think modern power plants are just too big and too complicated. My view is that in the long run it is more economical to go in for smaller steam power plants as well as gas turbine plants in the range of 10MW to 50 MW. The plants need to be a lot simpler too. There simply is no need to have eight or nine feed water heaters. Just two should suffice. True there is a slight increase in thermal efficiency by increasing feed water heaters but the increased capital costs as well as downtime losses caused by the extra complications kill any possible advantage. I think the designers have been fooling the public with such complexities. The story is similar to other professionals. Lawyers and Doctors too often complicate simple cases. They say that human greed is at the root of this complication. If things are too simple how will the professional make a living? If a dentist just gives a simple filling that you could almost do yourself instead of a prolonged root canal how will he afford that big car? So can the story be different when it comes to engineers?

Welcome

2005-09-02T22:10:00.000-07:00

Hi, if you are an engineer or technician who deals with steam or steam power you are welome to this blog. Talk of anything that is on your mind by entering a comment.