Showing posts with label engineering lessons. Show all posts
Showing posts with label engineering lessons. Show all posts

Friday, September 14, 2007

The POWER of GEOTHERMAL ENERGY

Pausukan na ang Gobyerno! weee

Did you know that Geothermal Energy is one of the cleanest, cheapest, and most available energy resources on earth? It might even become the solution to the imminent troubles from global warming.





Cleanest
Steam, which is the main raw material in the production of power, is extracted hundreds of kilometers down the earth. When steam is taken out from a production well, it is directed into three distinct pipes: the two-phase line, the steam line, and the brine line. From the two-phase line, the steam enters a ‘separator’ which obviously separates the vapor from the liquid (as steam is not always purely vapor especially when it goes farther from the center of the earth, while pressure is significantly decreasing). The steam sets through the steam line while the liquid takes the brine line. The steam running through the steam line is the one used for power production. On the other hand, the liquid in the brine line is directed into another well to set the by-product of production back to the earth. Meaning, the brine (waste of the steam production) is REINJECTED back to where it came from (earth). NO WASTE AT ALL.





Cheap and most available
Geothermal energy is a renewable resource, meaning, it is used and reused since it is naturally replenished. A lot of fuel forms are non- renewable since they are used and lost as soon as they undergo power production. Not like fuels, Geothermal energy is available anywhere and can be exploited anytime.









The Philippines is one of the “not so rich” nations in the world but don’t you know that this country is the second largest producer of Geothermal power in the whole world, next to US? I think the government should be considering this as a great asset for augmenting the status of our economy.



I am happy to say that I personally know the importance and real use of geothermal energy. Don’t you know that this renewable energy resource is not just up for power production?

Way back in college, we wished that our Project studies were given higher level of consideration from the government since we had bright ideas about using geothermal steam for other industrial projects, afar from power production.

Remember that the brine (geothermal waste) running down the brine line is still conveyed at high temperature. Using up the heat from the pipe was the major objective on our studies. A lot of industries can be established using such heat, as one great example is drying.

Some of my classmates presented great ideas like putting up a hot swimming pool, a drying plant, and more. We can even have a spa near the geothermal plant if we want to. I and my partner studied about chicken dressing using geothermal brine heat. I can say that it is feasible. If only the government knows these things, hay.







i have the authority to talk about enthalpy, entropy, adiabatic compression, saturation, humidity, irreversible expansion.... in short......

REFRIGERATION and AIR CONDITIONING

aying!

I am starting to miss college. I miss the board works, exams, reports, and everything. I want to go back. weee. That's why i am planning to take the post-masteral course that will be offered in Bicol University (BU) - College of Engineering next year.


Meanwhile, to feed my nostalgic emos, let me recall our basic lessons on Refrigeration and Air Conditioning before. Para sa mga curious kung ano ang mga ginagwa namin sa tribu. Patikim tungkol sa buhay Engineering....




REFRIGERATION and AIR CONDITIONING
Refrigeration is the study of process dealing with reducing and maintaining the temperature of a space or material below the temperature of the surroundings.



This subject has been one of our nightmares during our last days in college. Buti na lang nakapasa rin after daily "katayan" sa board work under a professor na nakakatanggap ng death threats sa mga estudyante nya (malamang dahil sa sobrang hirap ng subject at pagkaTERORista nya! aying!). One problem per day ang isosolve mo sa harap ng black board hawak ang chalk at calculator at dapat after 10 or 15 minutes tapos kana. After that, you must clearly explain your solution.





This is a Vapor Compression Refrigeration System.
(Compressor, Condenser, Expansion valve, Evaporator)

You can see four points and four components. If you are familiar with the refrigerant (as if naman ahihi), which is the working substance for a refrigeration system, yun ung dumadaan sa apat na components na yan.



So from point 1, the refrigerant (commonly freon) passes through the Compressor under adiabatic compression. From saturated vapor to the condenser pressure, teh refrigerant is now ready to enter the condenser from point 2. Gets? With the reversible rejection of heat at constant pressure, the refrigerant undergoes desuperheating and condensation from point 2 to 3. Mas maiintindihan natin tong mga to using the P-H and T-S diagram sa baba. Sa una mahirap but later on, you will surely enjoy it.




From point 3-4, irreversible expansion at constant enthalpy happens so that the refrigerant becomes saturated until it reaches the necessary evaporator pressure. Finally, from point 4-1, reversible addition of heat at constant pressure takes place in the evaporator. The process repeats on and on. Naintindihan mo na? yehey!

Mayon Volcano? hindi noh! pakarai!

HILO KANA BA? argh!

Basta ganun lang un. Paulit ulit lang ang process. From compression, iko-condense ang refrigerant, then ie-expand, then ibe-vaporize, and the process repeats on and on.

Now sa TS and PH diagrams, you can observe that there are horizontal, vertical, and curve lines. Ung bundok bundukan jan, un ung saturation line. It entails the critical points kung saan ung substsance is about to condense or about to vaporize. Sa PH, the horizontal lines depict constant pressure while the vertical describe a process at constasnt enthalpy. Ung curve dun nagsasabing constant entropy sya. Sa TS naman, horizontal for constant temperature and vertical for constant entropy. see madali lang diba (argh!).

Mukang nag-enjoy ka ha. Next time iba naman. ahihi...