Posted on 12/07/2023 6:35:21 PM PST by Boomer
Water mills have been used since antiquity!
That’s the power in the steam, dissipated.
That vehicle, parked overnight, had no steam. Only water.
What added power TO the water at ambient to make steam?
That’s where the power ORIGINATED.
No; that would be the heat source. In order to create power, the heat has to transmit to the working fluid in order to create force that is transmitted to the wheels to create work, and the power thereof is measured by how much work was done (in an automobile, force times distance) over a specific period of time. A heat source by itself is not the power source in an external combustion engine; everything works together.
Of course, in internal combustion engines, the working fluid is also the heat source, so things are combined there. But steam cannot be excluded from the power equation in an external combustion steam engine.
>> A heat source by itself is not the power source in an external combustion engine
Huh? Of course it is. The power drawn from the heat source, converted to kinetic energy using the multiplier of its efficiency (ALWAYS less than one), is exactly the power expended.
But what larger point are you making, or trying to make?
A static heat source generates no power; just radiant heat. Unless that heat can get to a machine via a working fluid, no power can be generated.
I’m just wondering what point you’re trying to make. Water is not feasible as a heat source, although it acts as a source of power when it is in the form of steam under pressure. Steam engines do not need to be constantly heated from without; a steam locomotive or steam car can keep running while the steam holds the heat and it will not simply dissipate into the “aether” for want of a better word (smokeless steam locomotives used pressurized steam as their power source, disconnected from any heat).
Presumes that you will have lots of nuclear power to generate all the hydrogen.
It also has the potential to be highly explosive. Water power by breaking water down into its constituents and resulting hydrogen as the combustion power? What energy source produces the hydrogen? What’s the energy conversion efficiency?
California send most of its fresh water into the ocean. They gonna need desalination plants.
Steam can work, and work well. Just some propane to heat the boiler. It would make a great Truck—and better than an electric Truck. Didn’t Lear, the Jet guy, think about steam cars a few years back?
I believe he may have had access to 'heavy water' that was deutronium? infused. That might make a good energy source.
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