• Cyrus Draegur
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    173 months ago

    Steam implies water! What if we used some OTHER phase-change working fluid? :D

    ||(No idea what, though. my question is implied with a playful tone and is at least 50% facetious; any actual discussion that might result would be little more than a pleasant coincidence)||

    • @MehBlah
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      253 months ago

      You want to see weird water look up super critical boilers. That stuff was nasty. A regular steam leak will set things on fire. That stuff would explode a broom. We looked for the leaks with straw brooms. You can’t see steam in normal conditions. Only its effects.

      • @Benjaben
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        183 months ago

        Blech, I’ve heard stories in my industrial automation days of people being clipped by invisible high pressure steam leaks. No frickin thank you, regular stovetop steam jacks me up frequently enough.

        • @[email protected]
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          83 months ago

          Well, now this is on my list of invisible things that scare me:

          • Radiation
          • Methanol fires
          • Supercritical steam jets
          • @Benjaben
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            33 months ago

            Not quite invisible but you could also splash and wade into a pool of strong acid thinking it was water, during what first seemed like a somewhat routine FUBAR maintenance situation…filling your boots etc.

            • @MehBlah
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              23 months ago

              At paper mills the fear is caustic pools filled with bases.

              • @Benjaben
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                13 months ago

                The weird man-lifts used to get a side eye from me

            • @[email protected]
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              12 months ago

              Definitely dangerous, but I’m less scared of that one. I’ve got detectors for that, and that’s more of a “go peacefully in your sleep” kind of danger.

          • @MehBlah
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            13 months ago

            The regular ones will kill you as well. Boiling water on a stove is nothing compared to steam under pressure.

    • @chaogomu
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      153 months ago

      Molten salt?

      We can then use compressed CO2 in the place of steam to drive the turbine.