Electric vehicles: motors and magnets?
…power supply in. Another alternative is to use induction, to magnetize the rotor core, but core losses and iron losses also leak power (impacting efficiency by 2-7pp) and generate heat…
Energy economics: engineering wonders?
…longer be tempted to commit exergetic harakiri by converting ratable electricity into some fuel that you can then run through a heat engine. https://thundersaidenergy.com/2023/01/12/thermodynamics-carnot-rankine-brayton-beyond/ How does that work? Frankly, some…
Industrial materials: thermodynamic efficiency?
…capture, and using AI. Definitions: what is thermodynamic minimum energy for materials? ΔHf° denotes the Standard Enthalpy of Formation. This is the change of enthalpy (i.e., heat), when 1 mole…
Omniscience: how will AI reshape the energy transition?
…unlock 10x gains, equating to 90% reductions in energy use per ton of output (pages 7-8). How will AI improve the efficiency of heat engines? Next-generation material science can also…
Acetylene: production costs?
…IRR on a large production facility, and after reflecting capex costs, feedstock gas prices, heat, electricity, cryogenic oxygen, opex costs and CO2 prices. Production costs are most sensitive to input…
Industrial ecosystems: on the shoulders of giants?
…heat). Global transportation is always possible, but typically adds 3-5% in transportation costs of individual materials, eating into c20% typical EBIT margins, cascading along industrial value chains that can include…
Gas fractionation: NGL economics?
…to ‘drop out’ all of the NGL fractions in a demethanizer (chart below). (For more details, we have written an overview of cryogenics) The NGLs may then be heat exchanged…
Boltzmann energy overview?
…chart below shows that chemical reactions proceed exponentially faster when temperatures are higher, which is why industrial heating is over 25% of all global energy use. Faster reactions will tend…
Gas dehydration: costs and economics?
…in an absorber unit. Then the water can be stripped from the TEG solution by heating to 200ºC in a reboiler unit. Many readers will note this is effectively the…
LNG ramp-rates: MTpa per month and volatility?
…was blamed on deficient valve-testing procedures, which allowed LNG to become isolated, heat up, expand, breach the pipeline and explode. US regulators asked for information on 64 items before permitting…