37 lines
1.9 KiB
Plaintext
37 lines
1.9 KiB
Plaintext
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| File Name : MHDMINI.ASC | Online Date : 04/02/95 |
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| Contributed by : Jerry Decker | Dir Category : ENERGY |
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| From : KeelyNet BBS | DataLine : (214) 324-3501 |
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| KeelyNet * PO BOX 870716 * Mesquite, Texas * USA * 75187 |
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| A FREE Alternative Sciences BBS sponsored by Vanguard Sciences |
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The following article is from Business Week, April 3, 1995, page 107.
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Electric-Fluid Energy gets another shot
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by Peter Coy
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Magnethohydrodynamics is beguilingly simple in principle: Electricity can be
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generated by passing a conductive fluid through a magnetic field.
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But the extreme temperatures and fluid velocities needed for large MHD
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generating plants damage components.
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The Energy Department pumped hundreds of millions of dollars into MHD until
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1993 without producing a plant that produced MORE electricity THAN IT
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CONSUMED.
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LM Manufacturing Ltd., a six-person company in Marysville, Washington, says it
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can succeed by thinking small. It hopes to build modest MHD generators that
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use liquid metal as the conductive fluid and produce just 5 to 250 Kilowatts
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of power.
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The initial market is farms, where deregulation is permitting competition. In
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one scenario, a farmer burns natural gas to heat a liquified gas. The mixture
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speeds past a magnet, generating power.
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The Energy Dept. gave LM surplus test gear from the Hanford (Wash.) nuclear
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site. In return, it will receive stock in LM and royalties on any generators
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sold.
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