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13 Jul 08 - 07:44 PM (#2388066) Subject: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Ebbie Ijust had a 'scathingly brilliant' (if I may quote a certain Mudcatter) idea. Fact 1: There are many, many volcanoes in this world and not a few of them are in the US. Fact 2: When a volcanoe erupts or even just rumbles and steams, all of that heat and power is wasted. Fact 3: We need more heat and power . Fact 4: Alaska has an 800-mile pipeline, so we know it can be done, thus: How about tapping into volcanoes and piping all that heat to our homes and businesses where it can do some good? Not only that, but it would potentially defuse some of the worst dangers this planet offers. eh? |
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13 Jul 08 - 08:24 PM (#2388080) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Severn This is not about Mr. Spock plays The Ventures? |
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13 Jul 08 - 08:50 PM (#2388089) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Uncle_DaveO Not quite in the way you phrase it, Ebbie, but the power of vulcanism can be and is being tapped. It's nothing new, let alone futuristic. "Tapping into volcanoes and piping the heat to all our homes and businesses" won't do except on a very local basis, because heat is a wasting and not very transportable asset. What can be and is being done is what's called geothermal energy, of which I can offhand think of two forms: 1 Where vulcanism creates natural steam wells (as in Yosemite Park and elsewhere), the pressure of the steam may be used to turn turbines for electric power. The heat of that steam may be used as in item 2 below. 2 Deep wells driven into volcanically heated strata can be used to turn pumped-down water into steam, which is forced up by its own expansion and used to turn turbines for electric power, and the heat of the spent steam to turn water in a plant at the surface into steam for the same purpose. The electricity so generated is perishable, of course, and is a wasting asset like the heat in Ebbie's post, but it is fed into a power grid and is available at long distances, and reliably, along with conventionally generated (i.e. coal, gas, and oil-powered generating plant) electricity. Sixty years ago I reported on thermal electric production in northern Italy, to a junior high school geography class, only to be accused by the teacher of making the whole thing up! So they are doing what you basically had in mind, I think, Ebbie, and they have been doing it for a long time. Iceland basically gets all of its heating, cooling, and electricity courtesy of Iceland's multitudinous volcanoes. Dave Oesterreich |
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13 Jul 08 - 08:52 PM (#2388092) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Uncle_DaveO Oh--and, Ebbie, the volcano doesn't have to erupt or even rumble or steam. The temperatures way down are often plenty hot enough for the purpose even if the volcano is not active. Dave Oesterreich |
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13 Jul 08 - 09:00 PM (#2388101) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Bee-dubya-ell After reading Ebbie's post my immediate thought was. "How could you possibly keep volcanic steam hot for an 800 mile journey?" Then it occurred to me that a pipeline made of an inner pipe of highly temperature resistant material encased inside an outer pipe, with a vacuum between the two could work. It would basically be something akin to a high-temperature Thermos bottle, only 800 miles long. If it works, maybe we could do the same thing with all the hot air in Washington D.C. |
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13 Jul 08 - 10:56 PM (#2388144) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Ebbie Maybe the heat in the pipe could be freeze-dried? :) Well! I must have been asleep and receptive - and slow - when this was floating around. I swear I didn't hear it discussed. But here is an article along these lines: "As fuel prices soar, Alaskan officials announced the exploration of the state's volcanoes, saying they could be exploited to provide energy for thousands of homes." June 2008 And here is reference to Uncle Dave's information: "Because of the special geological situation in Iceland, the high concentration of volcanoes and geothermal energy are very often used for heating and production of electricity. The energy is so inexpensive that in the wintertime, some pavements in Reykjavík and Akureyri are heated. "In Iceland, there are five major geothermal power plants which produce about 26% (2006) of the country's electricity. In addition, geothermal heating meets the heating and hot water requirements for around 87% of the nation's housing. "In 2006, 26.5% of electricity generation in Iceland came from geothermal energy, 73.4% from hydro power, and 0.1% from fossil fuels." Wikipedia And to think I was more than halfway kidding! |
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14 Jul 08 - 02:15 AM (#2388199) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: The Fooles Troupe "Deep wells driven into volcanically heated strata can be used to turn pumped-down water into steam, which is forced up by its own expansion and used to turn turbines for electric power, and the heat of the spent steam to turn water in a plant at the surface into steam for the same purpose." Much money spent on Aussie research on this - info should be somewhere out there in Googleland... |
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14 Jul 08 - 03:41 AM (#2388218) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Jack Campin I've visited the Wairakei geothermal power station in New Zealand. It is THE noisiest place I've ever been. The pipes run a few hundred yards over the surface bringing the steam to the generators, and they roar like a hundred heavy metal bands turned up to 11. I believe there's something similar in Italy using heat from the Vesuvius complex. |
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14 Jul 08 - 03:48 AM (#2388220) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Liz the Squeak Gees, if one little volcano could do that, imagine if we could rig up a pipeline to Spaw's ass?! LTS |
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14 Jul 08 - 01:44 PM (#2388698) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Stilly River Sage Though you hit the Gore/Bush home energy debate when you try to do the search, you'll find that if you have enough money and a smart wife, you don't need long pipelines to benefit from the heat of the earth's crust. Bush's Crawford ranch uses geothermal energy (Wikipedia source). The modern home in Crawford had a lot of updates and self-sustaining features added. (And for those who wonder, Gore has been updating his antebellum mansion, short of tearing it down and starting over again). SRS |
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14 Jul 08 - 02:16 PM (#2388737) Subject: RE: BS: Vulcan Pipeline- Brilliant! From: Richard Bridge Surely the original recording of "Pipeline" was by the Chantays, an Australian group, wasn't it? |