B
Bill Shymanski
- Jan 1, 1970
- 0
Whatever happened to magnetohydrodyamics (MHD) for electric power
generation? This was a big topic back in the mid '70s according to my
"Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers", with test setups being
done by Avco in the United States and in Moscow...but I get the
impression that MHD never really took off after those days.
I suppose with combined-cycle gas turbines hitting over 50% efficiency
(the big new General Electric and Alsthom turbines being examples), that
the motivation for MHD as a "topping" cycle has faded. Certainly the
difficulties of getting a gas to conduct electricity didn't make MHD any
easier to implement, and the issue of "seed" material recovery would
also have added to the complexity.
Is there a commerical-scale MHD in operation out there, or, like fusion
research, is the primary product of MHD research papers?
Bill
generation? This was a big topic back in the mid '70s according to my
"Standard Handbook for Electrical Engineers", with test setups being
done by Avco in the United States and in Moscow...but I get the
impression that MHD never really took off after those days.
I suppose with combined-cycle gas turbines hitting over 50% efficiency
(the big new General Electric and Alsthom turbines being examples), that
the motivation for MHD as a "topping" cycle has faded. Certainly the
difficulties of getting a gas to conduct electricity didn't make MHD any
easier to implement, and the issue of "seed" material recovery would
also have added to the complexity.
Is there a commerical-scale MHD in operation out there, or, like fusion
research, is the primary product of MHD research papers?
Bill