• marcos
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    3 hours ago

    Most new clean energy does not use boiling water.

    • fullsquare@awful.systems
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      3 hours ago

      there is a power generation scheme that uses high temperature fuel cells. optimally it could run on hydrogen only, but because it runs hot, it is able to take almost any flammable gas, along with some steam, and it forms hydrogen internally, then oxidizes it. this alone generates bulk of electricity, but offgas is hot, so it goes to heat exchanger which boils water, which then turns steam turbine

      • grue
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        2 hours ago

        That’s just burning a hydrocarbon with extra steps.

        • fullsquare@awful.systems
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          2 hours ago

          it replaces gas turbine with a fuel cell, which is a good couple % more efficient than CCGT. still under development. there is also another variant where hot offgas is generated under pressure and expanded directly. no steam, same effect