still waiting for someone to demonstrate a more efficient power transfer solution
Turbine go brrrr
Submitted 1 month ago by Agent641@lemmy.world to science_memes@mander.xyz
https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/bcba63d1-174c-43c1-bb67-a912df0d4b09.png
Comments
expatriado@lemmy.world 1 month ago
nomecks@lemmy.wtf 1 month ago
You’re in luck. Supercritical CO2 turbines are a thing now, and they’re way more efficient because they don’t involve a phase change.
chickenf622@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Got any sources on that? I would love to learn about some new tech in electricity generation.
Monument@lemmy.sdf.org 1 month ago
It’s funny (in a sad and sardonic sense) - I pay attention to the energy industry and the outcry over data centers has got me watching these generators closely. If they deliver on their promises, they could represent a great way to deliver on mirror-based solar reactors in areas with limited water resources. (And to recapture and use waste heat from the servers of data centers.)
Society is on the precipice of investing a lot into increasing energy generation for data centers that have to be near the same sorts of resources that people need - fresh water, environs conductive to generating power, stable (enough) climates. But this technology is arriving/set to reach adoption just in time for this boom-bust cycle. All those data centers in populated areas already have a timer ticking for when the shell corps have their rugs pulled.
Bluewing@lemmy.world 1 month ago
At some point you are going to need steam to spin a turbine to generate enough energy to compress the CO2.
SkunkWorkz@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Helios is trying to build a fusion reactor that harvests the energy through electro magnetic induction.
Tlaloc_Temporal@lemmy.ca 1 month ago
I’ll believe it when I see it. They have so many material science challenges ahead of them and aren’t very forthcoming with progress.
nightlily@leminal.space 1 month ago
Feels like putting the cart before the horse there.
pntha@lemmy.world 1 month ago
fission. aside from the fact physicists didn’t invent either, we’ve yet to boil any water with fusion.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Give me a concave mirror and I’ll change that
grue@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Best I can do is a convex lens.
FiniteBanjo@feddit.online 1 month ago
We’ve boiled tons of water with it, but there have been no functional turbines involved in a ten mile radius.
Flipper@feddit.org 1 month ago
I’ve got to disappoint you. We’ve boiled water with solar to crank a turbine for electricity.
Cort@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Even wind power still turns a generator, but solar is just completely different than everything else
vodka@feddit.org 1 month ago
But what if… en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Concentrated_solar_power
megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
They’re actually quite similar to thermoelectric generators. But the potential difference between two semi conductors is created by a heat differential rather than by photon excitation.
Thermoelectric generators have been used on various rovers and deep space probes as well as in remote lighthouses.
AdolfSchmitler@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Napster153@lemmy.world 1 month ago
“That’s it?! That’s the nuclear power? That’s just boiling water!”
Ancient meme I had back in the day…
Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 month ago
* Looks up *
* Ahem *
Nuclear fusion existed well before physists.
bountygiver@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
And we are harnessing its power WITHOUT boiling water
SethTaylor@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Man… can you imagine? Someone could shut down the whole power grid just by watching all that water.
jaschen306@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Didn’t China recently use super conducting CO2 instead of water?
BussyCat@lemmy.world 1 month ago
Supercritical CO2 has been looked at a lot for the Brayton cycle which can get 50% efficiency compared to steam that generally caps out around 34%
The US and china both published studies talking about a brayton turbine but to my knowledge no commercial plants running off of it have been built yet
Chais@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Supercritical, not superconducting.
Alberat@lemmy.world 1 month ago
idk but you can also use molten salt
megopie@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
You can use molten salt to move and store heat but you don’t put it through a turbine. Molten salt systems run it through a heat exchanger that heats steam or CO2.
PalmTreeIsBestTree@lemmy.world 1 month ago
This is what I think of when I hear molten salt.
altphoto@lemmy.today 1 month ago
That sounds great.
gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de 1 month ago
physicists looove hot showers! they’re the best! so comfy ☺️
snugglesthefalse@sh.itjust.works 1 month ago
Iirc one of the theoretical ways of generating power with fusion is magnetohydrodynamic generators which use the magnetic field created by the plasma to generate an electrical current directly. Still theoretical though…
MehBlah@lemmy.world 1 month ago
The idea that using steam loop to turn a turbine is mind blowing to some.
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
Mofos just reinvented the steam engine
SubArcticTundra@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
anton@lemmy.blahaj.zone 1 month ago
Give it a few years and this is how we ride through the post apocalyptic wasteland.
Murse@slrpnk.net 1 month ago
Can’t find it for the life of me… Describing a web comic vs actually posting it always feels like a flop, but…
Aliens abduct a physicist, who doesn’t seem to give much of a damn about the abduction but is instead enthused to learn about the alien tech on board, so they give him a tour of the ship. They get to the power reactor and start dropping a bunch of sci-fi jumbo about “We harness dark matter to… (sci-fi Ruth Goldberg machine) …and finally, we use the heat it generates to boil water and crank a turbine!!”
*Physicist drops to his knees in despair and let’s out a dramatic ‘noooooo!’
Paraphrasing heavily due to having shit memory. I thought it was a SMBC comic, but… /shrug.
Everyday0764@lemmy.zip 1 month ago
you did a good job i remember the comic
tyler@programming.dev 1 month ago
I was talking with my wife about a comic similar to that not even three hours ago so if you find it let me know cause I want to show her too.
Napster153@lemmy.world 1 month ago
“And then, the power generated is used to heat water and generate steam!”
“No…”
“That steam is used to turn a wheel!”
“No! NOOOOOOO!!!”
“Hey dude, calm down.”
-Actual exchange during first contact.
mortemtyrannis@lemmy.ml 1 month ago
I swear we are going to be travelling to other planets and the biggest issue is going to be how do we stop water leaking into space from our steam turbines