Investigative Question
Can steam produce enough power to generate electricity?
Research
What is steam
Steam is the gas phase of water. Steam is formed when water boils. Steam is invisible but it refers to wet steam, these water droplets are formed as water vapour condenses. If steam is heated much further, it is then known as superheated steam.
How steam works
In water, H2O molecules are continuously being joined and broken down. As the water molecules are heated, the bonds that joins the hydrogen to the oxygen begin to break apart faster than they can form. When there is enough heat supplied to the molecules, some of the molecules will break ‘free’. These so called ‘free’ molecules from the clear gas is what we know as steam or dry steam.
Dry steam versus Wet steam.
In industries that use steam, they use two commonly known types of steam, dry steam also known as saturated steam and wet steam.
Dry steam is water molecules that stay in the gaseous state and it is a transparent gas. An example of dry steam could be mist, this happens because when it is released into the colder atmosphere, it loses some of its energy by transferring it into the air.
Wet steam is when molecules of water have given up their latent energy and condense to form small water droplets.
Steam as a source of power
During the industrial revolution steam played an important role. The early modernisation of the steam engine in the early 18th century had major breakthroughs such as the invention of steam locomotives as well as the steam boat which also included the steam hammer and steam furnace. In today’s world, combustion engines as well as electricity have replaced steam as a source of power.
Steam as a source of heat
Today steam is mostly known for its heating applications as direct or indirect heating.
Direct steam heating :
is the process where steam is in direct contact with the object being heated. An example of this is Chinese dumplings being cooked with direct contact to the steam. Industries that make use of steam, mostly uses it for cooking, sterilization and other processes.
Indirect heating
is when steam does not come into direct contact with the object that is being heated. This process is mostly used in industries as it provides fast, even heating. The one advantage of this form of heating is that the product/object is not affected by the water droplets. Steam can therefore be used for a variety of applications such as melting, drying and boiling. Indirect steam can be used in a lot of processes such as food and beverage production, tyres and paper.
Principle application for steam
Steam is used in many industries. Most places that steam is used in is steam heated processes in plants and factories and steam driven turbines in electric power plants but the uses of steam is more than this. Some typical applications where steam is used in industry is heating/sterilization, propulsion/drive, motive, cleaning and humidification.
Steam for heating
Positive pressure steam
Steam is mostly generated and distributed at a positive pressure. This means that it is supplied to equipment at pressures above 0 and temperatures above 100`C. Heating applications for positive pressure steam can be found in food processing factories, refineries and chemical plants.
i. Steam oven: Superheated steam is heated to 200`C-800`C at atmospheric pressure and is easy to handle and used in household steam ovens in today’s world.
ii. Vacuum steam: When vacuum saturated steam is used in the same manner as positive pressure, the temperature of the steam can be quickly changed by adjusting the pressure, making it possible to achieve to achieve precise temperature control unlike applications using hot water.
Steam for propulsion/drive
Steam is often used as driving force in objects such as steam turbines and steam engines. The steam turbine is an apparatus that is essential for the generation of electricity in thermal electric power plants. In an effort to improve the efficiency, progress is being , made toward the use of steam at higher pressure sand temperatures. Superheated steam is often in turbines to prevent damage to equipment caused by the inflow of condensation.
Generator turbine: The driving force created by the steam causes the fins on the turbine to turn , which then causes the rotor, which in turn powers the motor to produce the electricity.
Steam as a motive fluid.
Steam can also be used as a direct ” motive” force to move liquid and gas streams in piping.
i. Ejector for surface condenser
Steam is a primary motive fluid for secondary pressure drainers, which is used for pumping cooler air from vented receiver tanks.
Steam for cleaning
Steam is used to clean a variety of surfaces. An example of this could be in industries that make use of oil and coal as a source of energy. The steam is produced by the soot blowers. Boilers in industries that use coal and oil as a source of energy must be equipped with soot blowers to clean the furnace walls and remove combusted deposits from convention surfaces to produce and maintain voile capacity, efficiency and reliability.
i. Boiler tube cleaning with soot blower :
The steam that is produced and released by the soot blower nozzle releases the dry ash and slag, causing the ash and slag to fall into hoppers or get carried out with the combusted gas.
Steam for moisturisation:
Steam is used to add moisture or dampness to a process while heating it at the same time. An example of this process is in the production of paper. Steam is used to moisturise the paper so that it doesn’t suffer from microscopic tears or breaks during production. Pellet mills is also another example that uses steam for moisturization. In the production of animal feed, the pellets are direct-injected with steam to heat and add water, for additional water content. This happens when feed is sent to the conditioner side of the mill.
Steam for humidification:
A lot of companies, commercial or industrial mostly in cooler climates, use low pressures, dry steam as the predominant heat source for indoor seasonal heating.
Combustion
Combustion is the chemical term used for a process known as burning. This is one of the earliest chemical change noticed by humans. Fire when controlled was importuned to their survival as it kept them warm and cooked meals for them. The earliest scientific attempt to explain combustion was made by Johann Baptista van Helmont who was a well known physician and alchemist.
Facts about combustion
1. The exothermic reaction: One of the examples of the exothermic reaction is combustion. It is included as an exothermic reaction because the heat is released during the process.
2. The reactants: In most cases the reactant in the combustion process is oxygen
3. The efficiency of combustion: The efficiency of combustion is not always 100%. The limited reactant makes the combustion incomplete.
4. The types of combustion: There are two types of combustion. Incomplete combustion and clean combustion.
5. The incomplete combustion: The incomplete combustion is characterized by the production of carbon monoxide from the carbon combustion. The reason why it is called this is because of the incomplete processes and also known as the dirty combustion.
6. The clean combustion: The water and carbon dioxide that is produced from the oxidation of hydrocarbon. It is also known as a clean combustion.
7. The example of incomplete combustion: The burning of coal is one the examples of the incomplete combustion. It is due to high amounts of released carbon monoxide and soot.
Home steam power
Most of the electricity that is produced today in the United States comes from steam turbine generators. Most steam turbines are powered by coal or nuclear power. A home steam generator is powered by gas or solar panels. During power grid failures, steam generator is great source of back up. In this case, a gas steam generator will be used at any time of the day. A steam turbine generator that is powered by solar panels can be used as the main source of energy or produce electricity to a household.
Uses of steam
Steam is used in a variety of places such as agriculture, electricity generation, energy storage, mechanical effort and sterilization.
1. Agriculture: in agriculture, steam is used to sterilize the soil to avoid harmful chemicals and increase the health of the soil. There is a technique called soil steam sterilization. This technique is used to sterilize the soil with steam in open fields. The steaming of the soil physically degenerates and kills pest plants such as weed, fungi and viruses. This process is biologically thought of as a partial disinfection.
2. Electricity generation: Most of the electricity that is produced is done with steam as the working fluid. In electric generation, steam is mostly condensed at the end of its expansion cycle and is then returned back to the boiler where it is re-used. In co generation steam is piped back into the buildings through heating system.
Types of steam and conversions
Steam is traditionally created when you heat a boiler/tank when burning wood, coal of any other form of material that can be used to produce heat. Water vapour, including water droplets is known as wet steam. Superheated steam is steam at a temperature higher that its boiling point for the pressure, which only occurs where liquid water has evaporated. Steam tables consist of thermodynamic data for water/steam and is often used by engineers or scientists in designing and operating equipment that consists of thermodynamic cycles.
Hypothesis
Steam can generate electricity. The greater amount of energy produced from the tank, the more the turbine will turn to produce electricity to power the light emitting diode (LED). The greater the aunt of steam produced by water , more energy will produced thus turning the turbine and resulting in electricity.
The steam tank is able to generate enough steam to power the motor to generate electricity to power the LED lights
Apparatus
Can
Syringe
Nails
Paraffin Lamp
Thin piece of tin for the turbine
Scissors
Drill
Water
Motor
LED
Wires
Glue
Wood
Prestik
Pen
Paraffin
Method
Take the can and drill two holes, one on the side and one at the bottom of the can.
Cut the pen into two equal pieces. Insert one piece of the pen into the one hole and the other piece into the other hole.
Glue the pieces of wood together using wood glue. Make sure the pieces of wood is equal length apart. Stick another piece of wood vertically so that you can place the tin wheel, motor and LED on.
Hammer the nails into the pieces of wood, make sure that the nails are equal lengths apart and able to hold the can
Place the can on top of the nails, make sure that the can is not too low as it will catch a light if placed too close to the lamp.
Pour water into the can from the tube that is on the side of the can. Different amounts of water was used for this experiment.
Place the lamp beneath the can, make sure an adult is there to help when lighting the lamp.
Cut the thin piece of tin into a circular shape and make slits from the centre of the circle throughout and join it to the motor using Prestik or any other material
Using the wires, join the LED to the motor and place the components on the vertical piece of wood.
Light the lamp after pouring in the water . Monitor the result.
Safety Precautions
Steam can be dangerous as it contains a huge amount of energy that can burn you.
Care should be taken when cutting the wood.
When lighting the lamp, make sure that it is not close to any flammable objects.
When using the drill to drill the holes into the can, make sure that there is an adult to assist.
Be careful when touching the tin as it will be hot and also be careful when emptying the water from the tin as it will be hot and you might get burnt.
Also avoid direct contact to the flame as you will burn yourself.
Observation
It took some time for the water to heat up and for steam to be produced. The flame had to be increased in order to get better results. The smell of paraffin was strong. You could also smell the paraffin while it was being burnt to produce energy to heat up the water to produce the steam. As the water was heating up, you could hear the water boiling. When the steam was produced, the steam then turned the turbine to power the motor which then produced energy to power the LED light.
Results
The steam that was produced by heating up the water in the can, spun the tin wheel which then powered the motor which then produced energy to power the LED.
Test No
Amount of water ( ml)
Time taken for LED to light up ( Min)
Length of time LED stayed lit ( Min)
1
25 ml
5 Min
4 Min
2
50 ml
9 Min
7 Min
3
100 ml
12 Min
10 Min
4
200 ml
18 Min
11 Min
Discussion
The experiment was accurate as the LED light lit up and this validates the experiment. It was, however, impossible to determine the exact amount of steam needed to generate X amount of electricity. A paraffin lamp was used as the source of heat for this experiment, but there are other cheaper sources such as methane gas that can be used as fuel. According to figure 1 the results obtained can be seen that 25ml of water resulted in the LED lighting up 1st and the 200ml took the longest for the LED light to light up. The reason is due to the fact that the larger amount of water took the longer to boil and produce steam than the 25ml. It is seen from figure 2 that 200ml of water had the LED light for the longest than the 25ml.Even though the 200ml took the longest to boil, the LED was lite for the longest time due to the large amounts of steam that was produced for a longer period of time.
Application
Based on the above research we can conclude that steam can generate electricity. Water in the form of steam, is an excellent transmitter of energy. The higher the temperature of water the greater the energy output.
Majority of our countries power supply is derived from coal which impacts on our environment negatively. An alternative such as steam will help combat pollution which currently poses a huge global threat. It can be used in homes, to propel turbines in ship and in factories.
Geographic limitations
Limited by the resources that are needed to power the steam generator to produce electricity such as: Paraffin , gases and water.
Renewable energy
If the project/apparatus is in a closed environment, the steam could be captured and then when the steam condensates, the water that is formed from the condensation, could be captured and transferred to back into the tank to be used again to produce the steam needed. A renewable resource is a resource that can be used repeatedly as it is replaced naturally. An example of renewable resource is hydroelectricity, solar and wind.
Pollution aspect
Pollution does play a role in this experiment as burning the paraffin releases chemical into the atmosphere which then contributes to the increasing size of the whole in the ozone layer.
Conclusion
The conclusion of this experiment, the steam that was produced was able to produce enough energy to power the LED light. Steam power could be used in the future to generate electricity and power households. There are some down falls to this however, because to boil the water which provides the steam might use most of our natural resources such as coal.
Bibliography
http://www.tlv.com/ti/steam-theory.org
http://www.factfile.org/factsaboutcombustion
http://www.encyclopedia.com/scienceandtechnology
Paste your esWhat is steam
Steam is the gas phase of water. Steam is formed when water boils. Steam is invisible but it refers to wet steam, these water droplets are formed as water vapour condenses. If steam is heated much further, it is then known as superheated steam.
How steam works
In water, H2O molecules are continuously being joined and broken down. As the water molecules are heated, the bonds that joins the hydrogen to the oxygen begin to break apart faster than they can form. When there is enough heat supplied to the molecules, some of the molecules will break ‘free’. These so called ‘free’ molecules from the clear gas is what we know as steam or dry steam.
Dry steam versus Wet steam.
In industries that use steam, they use two commonly known types of steam, dry steam also known as saturated steam and wet steam.
Dry steam is water molecules that stay in the gaseous state and it is a transparent gas. An example of dry steam could be mist, this happens because when it is released into the colder atmosphere, it loses some of its energy by transferring it into the air.
Wet steam is when molecules of water have given up their latent energy and condense to form small water droplets.
Steam as a source of power
During the industrial revolution steam played an important role. The early modernisation of the steam engine in the early 18th century had major breakthroughs such as the invention of steam locomotives as well as the steam boat which also included the steam hammer and steam furnace. In today’s world, combustion engines as well as electricity have replaced steam as a source of power.
Steam as a source of heat
Today steam is mostly known for its heating applications as direct or indirect heating.
Direct steam heating :
is the process where steam is in direct contact with the object being heated. An example of this is Chinese dumplings being cooked with direct contact to the steam. Industries that make use of steam, mostly uses it for cooking, sterilization and other processes.
Indirect heating
is when steam does not come into direct contact with the object that is being heated. This process is mostly used in industries as it provides fast, even heating. The one advantage of this form of heating is that the product/object is not affected by the water droplets. Steam can therefore be used for a variety of applications such as melting, drying and boiling. Indirect steam can be used in a lot of processes such as food and beverage production, tyres and paper.
Principle application for steam
Steam is used in many industries. Most places that steam is used in is steam heated processes in plants and factories and steam driven turbines in electric power plants but the uses of steam is more than this. Some typical applications where steam is used in industry is heating/sterilization, propulsion/drive, motive, cleaning and humidification.