The Robot Report

  • Home
  • News
  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
    • Cameras / Imaging / Vision
    • Controllers
    • End Effectors
    • Microprocessors / SoCs
    • Motion Control
    • Sensors
    • Soft Robotics
    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
    • Mobility / Navigation
    • Research
  • Robots
    • AGVs
    • AMRs
    • Consumer
    • Collaborative Robots
    • Drones
    • Exoskeletons
    • Industrial
    • Self-Driving Vehicles
    • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Markets
    • Agriculture
    • Healthcare
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Mining
    • Security
  • Financial
    • Investments
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Earnings
  • Resources
    • Careers
    • COVID-19
    • Digital Issues
    • Publications
      • Collaborative Robotics Trends
      • Robotics Business Review
    • RBR50 Winners 2022
    • Search Robotics Database
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum
    • Field Robotics Engineering Forum
    • DeviceTalks
    • R&D 100
    • Robotics Weeks
  • Podcast
    • Episodes
    • Leave a voicemail

Power Conversions

By Steve Meyer | November 23, 2016

Generating electrical power for use by consumers or industry is a big business.  There is a lot of applied science required in order to make it all work.  Strangely the dominant method of generating electricity is almost always by burning something to make steam, the steam turns a turbine that is attached to a generator.

Pretty simple.  Burning stuff is easy and there are a lot of different things that can be burned.  Coal, natural gas, even municipal waste.  Spent engine oil, even old used tires of which there are a lot.  Eventually it comes down to the amount of thermal energy that is stored in the material to be burned and what temperature it burns at.

Except that burning stuff doesn’t make a lot of sense.  There are a lot of complex secondary products that have to be dealt with.  Just like burning wood in a campfire or fireplace leaves ash, coal fired powerplants produce ash, but at the scale of a powerplant, it adds up to tons of ash.  So what do you do with the leftovers?  Make landfill?  On the chemistry side there are also problems with the byproducts of combustion; carbon monoxide, nitrous oxide and soot particles that can become airborne.  Over the last decades the power industry has successfully ‘cleaned up its act’ so that the negative effects of burning fuels have been minimized.   But, there are other options.

If you have a source of flowing water you can turn a wheel that turns a generator.  Even easier.  So we have hydroelectric power generation.  Unfortunately, in order to scale hydroelectric plants to useful size, large bodies of water have to be created by damming rivers.  Big changes occur in land use and sometimes whole populations have to relocate as in the case of the Three Gorges project in China.

Or there is nuclear power.  Refined radioactive materials give off huge amounts of heat.  Creating steam is easy and the stuff lasts for years.  Unfortunately these materials have so much energy that it is difficult to manage.  Water cooled reactors have been around since the first one was tested in 1952 at the Idaho National Laboratory.  The history of these types of reactors has been spotty and failures at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima, among others, should give us pause before any similar reactors are built.

All of which is what leads our modern civilization to look for other energy sources that can be converted to electricity.

 

 

 

 

About The Author

Steve Meyer

Tell Us What You Think! Cancel reply

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Related Articles Read More >

SUNY Adirondack to launch new program in mechatronics
Eplan Data Portal migrates to Azure
Transcript: How mechatronics is taking additive manufacturing to the next level
Is there a need for closed loop feedback greater than 20,000 CPR?

2021 Robotics Handbook

The Robot Report Listing Database

Latest Robotics News

Robot Report Podcast

The state of robotics investment
See More >

Sponsored Content

  • Magnetic encoders support the stabilization control of a self-balancing two-wheeled robotic vehicle
  • How to best choose your AGV’s Wheel Drive provider
  • Meet Trey, the autonomous trailer (un)loading forklift
  • Kinova Robotics launches Link 6, the first Canadian industrial collaborative robot
  • Torque sensors help make human/robot collaborations safer for workers

RBR50 Innovation Awards

Leave us a voicemail

The Robot Report
  • Mobile Robot Guide
  • Collaborative Robotics Trends
  • Field Robotics Forum
  • Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum
  • RoboBusiness Event
  • Robotics Business Review
  • Robotics Summit & Expo
  • About The Robot Report
  • Subscribe
  • Advertising
  • Contact Us

Copyright © 2022 WTWH Media LLC. All Rights Reserved. The material on this site may not be reproduced, distributed, transmitted, cached or otherwise used, except with the prior written permission of WTWH Media
Privacy Policy | Advertising | About Us

Search The Robot Report

  • Home
  • News
  • Technologies
    • Batteries / Power Supplies
    • Cameras / Imaging / Vision
    • Controllers
    • End Effectors
    • Microprocessors / SoCs
    • Motion Control
    • Sensors
    • Soft Robotics
    • Software / Simulation
  • Development
    • Artificial Intelligence
    • Human Robot Interaction / Haptics
    • Mobility / Navigation
    • Research
  • Robots
    • AGVs
    • AMRs
    • Consumer
    • Collaborative Robots
    • Drones
    • Exoskeletons
    • Industrial
    • Self-Driving Vehicles
    • Unmanned Maritime Systems
  • Markets
    • Agriculture
    • Healthcare
    • Logistics
    • Manufacturing
    • Mining
    • Security
  • Financial
    • Investments
    • Mergers & Acquisitions
    • Earnings
  • Resources
    • Careers
    • COVID-19
    • Digital Issues
    • Publications
      • Collaborative Robotics Trends
      • Robotics Business Review
    • RBR50 Winners 2022
    • Search Robotics Database
    • Videos
    • Webinars / Digital Events
  • Events
    • RoboBusiness
    • Robotics Summit & Expo
    • Healthcare Robotics Engineering Forum
    • Field Robotics Engineering Forum
    • DeviceTalks
    • R&D 100
    • Robotics Weeks
  • Podcast
    • Episodes
    • Leave a voicemail