Eli5: If we had steam powered trains back in the day, why didn’t steam become a common “clean” energy source? Why did it die out?
In: 0
Steam doesn’t just appear. It has to be made by burning something.
Nuclear power plants are still just a complicated way to make steam.
Steam doesn’t just appear. It has to be made by burning something.
Nuclear power plants are still just a complicated way to make steam.
Steam has to be made.
When talking about fuels or propulsion, we use words like efficiency. This basically means: how much energy (for example heat or moving distance) can I get out of a fixed amount of a certain power source.
And steam is very inefficient. It takes a lot of energy (coal fire for example) to get the water boiling.
For the same amount of money you pay for the coal, you could buy 4 times the amount of diesel fuel for a train (random numbers for clarification).
Edit: in modern days, steam engines kind of still exist. Nuclear and coal power plants are just another way of producing steam to turn generators to produce electricity.
But making the steam requires a lot of non green fuel. And it’s only capable of being used in huge power plants. Powering a car with steam would be a financial doomsday
>Eli5: If we had steam powered trains back in the day, why didn’t steam become a common “clean” energy source? Why did it die out?
Steam is created by heating up water a lot. Steam engines burned coal for that.
You can heat up the water by other means too! Nearly *every* conventional contemporary power plant uses steam turbines to generate its output. Coal power plants burn coal to provide steam for their turbines, gas power burn gas to provide steam for their turbines, nuclear power plants use the heat generated from nuclear fission to provide steam for their turbines.
It’s steam turbines all the way down. Either way, none of it is *particularly* clean. There’s always something that gets **set on fire** or used up in the process.
Steam doesn’t just appear. It has to be made by burning something.
Nuclear power plants are still just a complicated way to make steam.
You get steam by boiling water. How do you boil the water? *That’s* the power source, not the steam.
The typical answer has been “burn *coal* to boil the water”.
Steam has to be made.
When talking about fuels or propulsion, we use words like efficiency. This basically means: how much energy (for example heat or moving distance) can I get out of a fixed amount of a certain power source.
And steam is very inefficient. It takes a lot of energy (coal fire for example) to get the water boiling.
For the same amount of money you pay for the coal, you could buy 4 times the amount of diesel fuel for a train (random numbers for clarification).
Edit: in modern days, steam engines kind of still exist. Nuclear and coal power plants are just another way of producing steam to turn generators to produce electricity.
But making the steam requires a lot of non green fuel. And it’s only capable of being used in huge power plants. Powering a car with steam would be a financial doomsday
>Eli5: If we had steam powered trains back in the day, why didn’t steam become a common “clean” energy source? Why did it die out?
Steam is created by heating up water a lot. Steam engines burned coal for that.
You can heat up the water by other means too! Nearly *every* conventional contemporary power plant uses steam turbines to generate its output. Coal power plants burn coal to provide steam for their turbines, gas power burn gas to provide steam for their turbines, nuclear power plants use the heat generated from nuclear fission to provide steam for their turbines.
It’s steam turbines all the way down. Either way, none of it is *particularly* clean. There’s always something that gets **set on fire** or used up in the process.
Old steam engines were powered by burning wood or coal to make the steam. Not a clean energy source at the time.
>Eli5: If we had steam powered trains back in the day, why didn’t steam become a common “clean” energy source? Why did it die out?
Steam is created by heating up water a lot. Steam engines burned coal for that.
You can heat up the water by other means too! Nearly *every* conventional contemporary power plant uses steam turbines to generate its output. Coal power plants burn coal to provide steam for their turbines, gas power burn gas to provide steam for their turbines, nuclear power plants use the heat generated from nuclear fission to provide steam for their turbines.
It’s steam turbines all the way down. Either way, none of it is *particularly* clean. There’s always something that gets **set on fire** or used up in the process.
Latest Answers