Steam Center Blog

Nainital Lake O ver 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 DESTROYED – by most natural processes. It requires chemical and other possesses such as electrol...

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 o...

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: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/iceland-geothermal-power/ 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. https://www.amazon.com/Thermodynamic-Properties-...

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 ,