this post was submitted on 09 Apr 2024
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Science Memes

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(page 3) 31 comments
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[–] [email protected] 3 points 1 year ago (2 children)

is it time for steam cars to make a come back?

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It always produces unbelievably great memes when another person discovers how humanity generates energy from splitting atoms. I was baffled, too.

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[–] [email protected] 70 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

Solar photovoltaic is the only one i can think of that isn't just a fancy way to make steam

EDIT

ok let's clarify to say a method that isn't related to movement of a fluid that spins a turbine. So not windmills (air is a fluid), not hydro, not geothermal, etc.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

Seriously though

Also hydroelectric

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Hydro power uses running water not hot water.

Squeezing can be converter to electricity with pizeo electric. Heat difference can be converted into electric directly with peltier devices. Both of these are very inefficient ways to make electricy.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm the spirit of this comment, water is just cold steam.

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[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I guess aeolic energy also doesn't use steam (unless we count the air humidity), but still involves turning a turbine.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Excuse my blatant ignorance, but what is aeolic energy? I've never heard about it before.

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Apparently it's the fancy word for wind power.

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[–] [email protected] 40 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (11 children)

Piezoelectricity is the only other I can really think of. But it's not like we are out here smacking crystals with hammers to make power.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (10 children)

All power generation is either solar or 'make thing spin', unless we're including RTGs and Piezoelectrics.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

If/when aliens ever visit us, it’ll be with glorified steam engines.

[–] [email protected] 200 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Water and steam just too goddamn convenient. Super high latent heat so it can move a ton of energy with a quick phase change, works at reasonable pressures and temperatures, stays liquid all the time when you want it to so pumps work, and it's so readily available as to be damn near free. Super cool!

[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago (5 children)

It’s great for nuclear reactors. Hot rock make turbine go brrr

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[–] [email protected] 131 points 1 year ago (2 children)

also almost non-corrosive, non-toxic, doesn't damage ozone layer, zero global warming potential, non-flammable etc (lots of organic rankine cycle fluids fail one or more of these. tradeoff is utilization of lower temperature sources)

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

zero global warming potential

This one isn't right. Nobody will complain about you releasing it, but it's a quite strong global warming gas.

[–] [email protected] 110 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Very strong GWP, but it does this cool thing where it condenses when it hits colder air and falls back to the ground in liquid state, thus removing itself from the atmosphere...

(It's equivalent GWP is near zero and is estimated to be between 0.0005 and -0.001)

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

But it can be contained and condensed for reused.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (4 children)

/uj Steam is just an intermediary form for almost all these tho (except maybe geothermal? not sure), not the real source.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago
[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Solar is an exception I think

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

True, but there are also solar steam systems, using a parabolic mirror to focus the sun on a steam drum.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Arguably these are even greener than photovoltaics, since they don't require the same kinds of materials to make (mostly just steel) and last longer than photovoltaics are supposed to. They use a fair bit of water, but you probably aren't building them in places where water is at a premium.

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[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Geothermal power still uses steam to generate electricity. It's steams all the way down.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 1 year ago (5 children)

Steam isn't the energy source tho, just a transfer mechanism.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Steam just makes sense as a fluid for heat engines, thermal power plants are mostly steam, except when gas turbines are involved, but even then there's most of the time steam bottoming cycle. (gas turbine burns something, then exhaust is hot enough to power steam cycle) Unless thermal power plant is small, then it's more likely to be diesel engine (up to few MW). Only when it's photovoltaics, or hydropower, or wind farm (or tidal powerplant, or some other weird ones) there's no place for steam to be involved (solar thermal plants sometimes use steam cycle). Geothermal powerplants use steam if source is hot enough, otherwise it's something more volatile in organic Rankine cycle

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm referring to the root energy source, rather than how it's transferred.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago

Hydroelectric is just liquid steam, and wind is just cold, thin steam.

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