The End of Steam in Power Production???

Many engineers can now foresee replacing steam power production, the cornerstone of power production for 200 years. Remember that coal, natural gas, oil,  nuclear, and even some solar electrical plants use steam turbines. Research at Universities has led to a pilot plant using carbon dioxide in supercritical phases to replace steam. The Supercritical Transformational Electric Power project is one of the world's largest-scale and most comprehensive, funded by the Department of Energy.  A key project goal is to advance the state-of-the-art for high-temperature carbon dioxide in the power cycle performance. This breakthrough brings me to one of Jules Verne’s most obscure predictions in Paris in the Twentieth Century, written in 1863.  Verne predicted that in 1960 Paris: “Carbonic acid (carbon dioxide) now dethroning steam..”[1] Verne offered this as if his readers might understand such a possibility. Verne rarely predicted without some scientific backing.  In fact, in the 1860s, the use of carbon dioxide was pursued by Victorian engineers and scientists.  Marc Brunel and his son Isambard ( Great Eastern fame)  conducted over 15,000 experiments on an engine driven by carbonic acid based on Micheal Faraday’s theories. In the late 1860s, James Baldwin detailed his patent for carbonic acid, but using the physical phases of carbon dioxide at available temperatures and pressures lacked the efficiency of steam. Today, engineering allows super temperatures and pressures in the engine cycle. It may turn out that one of Verne’s little-noticed predictions will become one of his best.  Quentin Skrabec

 

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[1] Jules Verne, Paris in the Twentieth Century, Ballantine Books, 1996, p. 12