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The Kola Superdeep Borehole reached temperatures of 500 degrees at the bottom. If you could dig down to where the temperature reaches just over 212 degrees, would you be able to run a steam engine by putting water in the hole and letting it boil to create steam to power the engine. As long as the heat remained the same and was able to properly run the steam engine, it would seem like a very renewable energy source as the water could be collected and dumped back down the hole to repeat the process indefinitely.

Kola Superdeep Borehole, https://archive.is/0zuzE Steam engines, https://www.mpoweruk.com/steam_turbines.htm

The Kola Superdeep Borehole reached temperatures of 500 degrees at the bottom. If you could dig down to where the temperature reaches just over 212 degrees, would you be able to run a steam engine by putting water in the hole and letting it boil to create steam to power the engine. As long as the heat remained the same and was able to properly run the steam engine, it would seem like a very renewable energy source as the water could be collected and dumped back down the hole to repeat the process indefinitely. Kola Superdeep Borehole, https://archive.is/0zuzE Steam engines, https://www.mpoweruk.com/steam_turbines.htm

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[–] • 25 pts 3y

Geothermal power has been in use for a really long time, depending on where you live you could even have in built for your dream house.

"binary cycle power stations" is what you are looking for for reusing the water/steam.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt 3y

This is exactly the point I was going to make. Hell if it wasn't in the national park and a natural wonder Old Faithful would have likely have been capped and used to power a lot of homes in that state.

[–] • 19 pts 3y

This is essentially how Iceland gets all of their electricity.

[–] [deleted] • 2 pts 3y

and how Alcoa because a huge business using the electricity from geothermal plants they built to smelt aluminum which requires huge amounts of electricity since it's got a really high melting point.

[–] • 1 pt 3y

Do you mean they have deep holes with steam generators or they use steam to get power in a different way?

[–] • 17 pts 3y

Their island divided by continental plates, so they don't even have to go deep at all to get access to heat. They have hot springs all over the place, hell they even heat their sidewalks with geothermal energy so snow instantly melts and they don't have to shovel snow. And yes, they use this natural steam to turn turbines.

[–] • 8 pts 3y

New Zealand also has a bunch of geothermal power plants. Pretty sure they all use steam.

[–] • 2 pts 3y

I believe you mean "mid atlantic ridge" rather than "continental plates."

[–] • 0 pt 3y

Did the dinosaurs move underground ?

[+] [deleted] • 2 pts 3y
[–] • 1 pt 3y (edited 3y)

Yes they big deep ass holes 🕳 then they toss cats in them. The friction of the cats creates electricity and heat and that’s how they power their homes. The cats are always dying though so they need a fresh supply of cats. China is actually a major exporter of cats since they don’t have those stupid humane laws we have about them. Another thing the Chinese have correct

[–] • 1 pt 3y

Have they strapped buttered toast to the cats to extend their fall time?

[–] • 0 pt 3y

I thought it was not the friction, but the static electricity from the cats fur, that the dinosaurs utilize.

[–] • 0 pt 3y

Well the cats from China were great for a while, but then the “fellow cat people” got involved. Before you know it, all we’re hearing about is how the cats aren’t diverse enough. Now all the cats we get are lazy as fuck and super violent. Instead of a polite Mr. Whiskers and Tammy the Tabby, we have to deal with Felirone and Catneesha and their damn attitude.

[–] • 0 pt 3y

hes talkin about their women

[–] [deleted] • 6 pts 3y

Doesn't have to be 212 degrees. Any difference in temperature can produce work. Ever heard of a Peltier? You supply power to it and one side of it will be hot, the other cold. Run that backwards and you get current from a temperature gradient.

[–] • 6 pts 3y

Do a search for a "trompe" and get pissed off about our bullshit energy industrial complex

[–] • 0 pt 3y

What the fuck

[–] • 0 pt 3y

Can't be having free compressed air. You gotta pay for that refrigeration, goy. And don't even think about a compressed air vehicle(downtoearth.org.in) that would be annuda shoah!?!!

[–] • 4 pts 3y

Uhh... That’s called geothermal energy generation. Check it out.

[–] • 3 pts 3y

Assuming you could get the steam back up with it remaining steam, then yes. You'd need a lot of it, however, steam turbines consume quite a bit of steam during operation. They're actually under a pretty decent vacuum so the steam stays steam longer and you can extract more work from it.

The rest (condensing and stuff) is just regular power plant/steam turbine operation.

[–] • 1 pt 3y

You wouldn't need to get the steam back up, would you? Just have it do it's thing at the bottom and turn a generator. Cables running up the hole would carry electricity. Then, ideally, you could get an almost reflux still effect in the hole, with the water. but getting additional water down would be easy.

[–] • 4 pts 3y

The steam itself doesn't directly drive a turbine. It's just what causes enough of a pressure differential to act on the turbine blades and make the whole thing move. If you put everything down at the bottom of the hole, then the temperature and pressure would be equal across the system, and nothing would happen.

So instead you pipe the steam up from the source (where the temperature and thus pressure is high) into the turbines (where the pressure is low).

[+] [deleted] • 2 pts 3y
[–] • 0 pt 3y

If you put everything down at the bottom of the hole, then the temperature and pressure would be equal across the system, and nothing would happen.

That can't be entirely true. If I had a sealed reservoir full of water, with a pipe going down into the water, and I throw it on the stove(or inside an oven for that matter), it will boil and water will come out of the pipe.

[–] • 3 pts 3y

A piece of pipe full of steam at 500F is one thing. Putting a generator and all the associated equipment at that level would be problematic, and servicing would be impossible.

Countries with high volcanic activity already do this, so it's just a matter of finding an area where you can pipe the water around. In the USA, the Yellowstone region would probably be perfect for this.

[–] • 0 pt 3y

Plus wouldn't boiling water like that below sea level at a higher atmosphere up the boiling temp?

[–] • 1 pt 3y

Still would need a cooler, lower pressure place to exhaust the steam. The volume of water required would be large to get significant power from a turbine. People have done a lot of work in the field of "geothermal energy" and there's a fair amount written about it.

[–] • 0 pt 3y (edited 3y)

People have done a lot of work in the field of "geothermal energy" and there's a fair amount written about it.

If I wanted to actually put in the effort for this, would I be armchair engineering here?

Why do you have to exhaust the steam? Isn't piping that back into the cold instream a more efficient option?

[–] [deleted] • 0 pt 3y

That's not how it usually works.

What they do is, they run a pipe down the well deep enough that it will heat the water to near boiling then the pipe does a "U-turn" back up still liquid, but very hot. 99°C

Because the level is the same at the input (cold tank) as the output (hot tank), almost no energy is required for pumping. The water just levels out by itself.

Then a minuscule amount of natural gas is needed to finish boiling the water to turn it into steam to power the generator.

[–] • 1 pt 3y

Yes, Its literally geothermal energy.

[–] • 1 pt 3y

I had never heard of it, what has been the barriers to it being used widespread?

[–] • 1 pt 3y

the barriers to it being used widespread?

There's no where to put the meter.

[–] • 0 pt 3y

it's prohibitively expensive in many locations.

places with volcanic activity closer to the surface (Iceland is the prime example) can use it most effectively.

[–] [deleted] • 1 pt 3y

Yeah, it's called "Geothermal". Most of Iceland is powered this way.

[–] • 1 pt 3y

Yes, anything is possible these days.

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