Hydrogen powered cars?

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Originally Posted By: Spazdog
The problem I see is that the hydrogen is still being produced from natural gas. Why not just use natural gas?


Because the electrochemical conversion is far less lossy and thus yields a much higher net efficiency in the LHVin/Power out efficiency ratio then regular IC diesel/gasoline/GT conversions. Recuperated plants can do pretty well but have their own issues if not base loaded.

Further, the low temps and lack of combustion make for no NOx or other pollution. Sulfur must be removed in advance.

Add to the benefit that methane is generally reformed in steam, and the CO product can be shifted with more steam to yield extra moles of H2.

The problem? steam reforming is endothermic, so not practical to use stand alone.

Recuperating an NG electric plant or GT would be a good idea. Pull that waste heat to raise steam like a bottoming cycle, but then feed the steam to do SMR.
 
Originally Posted By: SHOZ
I've got 4 nukes within 100 miles of me. No more please.


My wife's family grew up eating fish from the area around the Crystal River Nuclear plant in Florida. Is it a coincidence that she required treatment for mercury contamination?

Every time I drive by a Nuke plant I imagine it being built by the lowest bidder...
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
My wife's family grew up eating fish from the area around the Crystal River Nuclear plant in Florida. Is it a coincidence that she required treatment for mercury contamination?

Hard to say - we've had mercury warnings with respect to fish consumption in various parts of the province for years, and we haev no such power plants. Many of the warnings are here down south, too, where there is no uranium mining (which one could use an something "related" to the issue in northern Saskatchewan).
 
Coal fired power plants generate a fair amount of mercury themselves. Could the mercury problem in Crystal River been caused by the coal fired units there?
 
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Yeah, I don't know where mercury would come out of a nuclear plant.

Originally Posted By: Garak
Bingo, we have a load of coal plants in southern Saskatchewan, and mercury problems in that part of the province, too.
 
If it's coal pwer, they are ding something wrong...yes, coal has mercury, but we don't see it in rivers or fish around here.
 
I was just speculating, Shannow. I don't know if it is from the coal plants or something else at all. There's been a long standing mercury issue in the fish in this part of the province, and we've had coal plants here forever. Maybe they're old plants. Maybe it's the climate. Maybe they're doing something wrong. Maybe it's something else altogether. I honestly have no idea, and really didn't look into it much. We don't have much here beyond agriculture and coal power, so I don't know where it's coming from.
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There are a couple mercury warnings in the north part of the province, but that is, notably, only in the coldest waters and the longest lived, slowest growing fish, and the warnings allude to the life span and temperatures.
 
Not saying that it's not the coal power...there is mercury in the stuff for sure...I just know what we do, and what's not a problem, and has me scratching.

Fish at the top of the food chain accumulates the stuff...when I lived in Adelaide, shark was only available at the fish and chip shops on Fridays to limit community exposure to mercury.
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
I'm not sure on the link between mercury and nukes...


Neither are we.

But as already stated they burnt a LOT of coal there as this plant had a lot of problems. And still does...
 
Originally Posted By: SteveSRT8
Originally Posted By: Shannow
I'm not sure on the link between mercury and nukes...


Neither are we.

But as already stated they burnt a LOT of coal there as this plant had a lot of problems. And still does...


I was getting confused...

thanks to wiki Crystal River is 4 coal fired power stations and 1 nuke on the same campus.

Looking at Google Maps 28°58′N 82°42′W , the coal stockpile drainage appears to be directly into the cooling water intake canal, which is straight back into the river...
 
Originally Posted By: Shannow
Fish at the top of the food chain accumulates the stuff...when I lived in Adelaide, shark was only available at the fish and chip shops on Fridays to limit community exposure to mercury.

I remember reading about the issue with sharks, too, notably because of its position on the food chain. With reference to SHOZ's comments, we don't have much gold mining in this province. We have some now, but it essentially didn't exist when the mercury issue was really publicized. There is a lot of coal power here, and I suspect some of the infrastructure is rather dated.
 
In the Chicago area they shut down 4 coal plants this year due to the emissions. Unless those plants have new scrubbers and other environmental controls they are gross polluters.
 
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