Posted on 12/09/2018 8:30:45 AM PST by BenLurkin
MIT engineers have come up with a conceptual design for a system to store renewable energy, such as solar and wind power, and deliver that energy back into an electric grid on demand. The system may be designed to power a small city not just when the sun is up or the wind is high, but around the clock.
The new design stores heat generated by excess electricity from solar or wind power in large tanks of white-hot molten silicon......
(Excerpt) Read more at scitechdaily.com ...
Yeah. I’d much rather have a boob on my face than a ball.
Hot Graphite
Google the "Windscale disaster" in UK
They had a huge graphite furnace to convert Uranium....the thing got out of control and the graphite combusted and out of control..
Some crazy scientist had insisted on huge filers on to of the heater tower....trapped most of the radioactive dust.
The twin Windscale towers with filters at top
Hot Graphite
Google the "Windscale disaster" in UK
They had a huge graphite furnace to convert Uranium....the thing got out of control and the graphite combusted and out of control..
Some crazy scientist had insisted on huge filers on to of the heater tower....trapped most of the radioactive dust.
The twin Windscale towers with filters at top
Yup, hot graphite is bad stuff to have around O2. Burned tons of the stuff at Chernobyl too, IIRC. It’s an engineering problem to keep the O2 out and certainly isn’t a unique problem on Earth. Simple on the moon. At least if this burns here there’s no radioactivity to deal with. The resulting pollution would be CO2, some CO, and rock dust. Need air filters or respirators in the smoke, just a broom outside it.
Umm -- under what conditions would NaCl ("salt") turn into "glass"?
I'm not seeing the answer here...
TXnMA
“When the liquid was kept at 3,600 F for about 60 minutes...”
Plus Papabear3625 mentioned Silicon is molton at 2577*F
The melting point of glass is 1723 degrees Celsius or 3133.4 degrees Fahrenheit.
The melting point of NaCL is 1474*F
I did incorrectly say NaCL instead of NaCO3 for glass - so my point was a bust all around....NaCl won’t turn to glass. It would melt though at the temps discussed.
(insert blues brothers excuse quote here)
Why would I be disappointed? I am simply pointing out the cascade of inefficiencies from converting energy MULTIPLE times.
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