At 8:13 AM 4/14/5, RC Macaulay wrote: >Adding moisture ( steam) into the inlet would increase the flow via >differential temperatures
Yes, warm wet air should indeed improve performance if the water condensed out before leaving the tower, for the reasons noted below by Stephen A. Lawrence. At 11:02 PM 4/18/5, Stephen A. Lawrence wrote: > Under typical conditions, as I >understand it, the atmosphere is stable (or nearly stable) _absent_ >_condensation_. Once the dew point is crossed the energy gained from >the condensation keeps the air warm as it rises and that's the engine >that drives the thunderstorm. Yes, good point. The latent heat of condensation provides 600 cal/g of water, so there is a lot of energy there. It should be worthwhile to do the solar heat collection while passing air over a water surface. If the condensed water could be captured at, say, 700 meters altitude, it would provide some hydropower. If salt water is used in the greenhouse for the solar collection, then the tower can double as a water source. The tower would just be nature's water cycle in a bottle. Regards, Horace Heffner
