We have been attempting to understand the initial water capture discrepancy and
several issues come up which need an explanation. Mr. Cude and I have been of
the opinion that the ECATs must be full of water during an initiation period
since it seems logical that the check valves at the output of each module must
open before water can escape. According to our previous logic, the
thermocouple readings suggest that these valves are open due to the input water
flow.
There is an alternate possibility that might explain what is observed. We know
that the ECATs are closed to the world by a gasketing technique which should be
air tight if performing properly. I hypothesize that warm air which is of high
humidity must exit the devices as the water inside heats up and displaces it.
All of the air eventually must be expelled through the output port as vapor
becomes dominate.
This humid warm air would enter the steam piping and the water would
immediately begin to condense upon every surface. This would lead to elevated
readings of the thermocouple at the steam pipe and also would result in liquid
water pooling within the dissipaters and plumbing. There would be far too low
of a pressure at this time to expel the water to the exterior bins so it would
pool.
Now, when one of the ECATs finally generates enough energy to start to boil,
this initial fresh supply of hot vapor would have to vaporize the water
standing within the output system. This would of course make the temperature
hover about that required to vaporize water at atmospheric pressure or 100 C.
This sequence of events would explain the “shoulder” appearing at the boiling
temperature that exists for a fairly long time before the standing water
becomes overwhelmed.
If the process that I have proposed is true, then the water levels within the
various ECAT devices would not have to be at full. The problem with the
measurement of liquid water trapped would also become much less of an issue.
Furthermore, now the output of the 1 MW system could consist of mainly vapor
and the HVAC guy most likely performed his task correctly.
Dave
