Steam Center Blog

Oil on canvas by Ashok It seems that the burning of fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide may be incorrectly blamed in the media and by many others for global warming. Carbon dioxide accounts for just 0.038% 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. (Update April 7, 2014) A lay person assumes that because carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas  its increase must lead to increased heat absorption in the atmosphere and therefore increased temperatures but the more relevant question to explore is how much increase. Admittedly the full calcula...

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 supplemen...

T he world is running out of fossil fuels for sure although changes in economy shall see periodic gluts and price falls over the next few decades. As the price of petroleum crude 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. However, solar panel costs have been coming down and a combined hybrid solar + wind system has become economical in many areas. 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 cu...

How to Succeed in Exams E xaminations are a major matter that concerns any student. We all know that things like being intelligent 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 intelligence, there are well known techniques that help a student get a high score. The book can be found by searching on Google books, or at amazon http://www.amazon.com/How-Succeed-Exams-Ashok-Malhotra/dp/1411678311 ,

T here 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 ...