Thread: Recycling steam

Hi, my name is Alex and I'm 15 years old, an idea I have is to recycle the steam that is deposited from the cooling towers at power stations.
This could be done by funneling the steam from the towers through pipes,(increasing the pressure) and back at the turbines to spin them.
This would lessen the need for fossil fuels to be burned to produce the steam in the first place. And may remove visual unappealing cooling towers so there would be fewer complaints when plans are put forward to build power staions.
This principle may be applied to any power facility that bases it's production of electricity on steam driven turbines.i,e nuclear.

Please feel free to post your thoughts on this

Originally Posted by Alex Owen

Hi, my name is Alex and I'm 15 years old, an idea I have is to recycle the steam that is deposited from the cooling towers at power stations.
This could be done by funneling the steam from the towers through pipes,(increasing the pressure) and back at the turbines to spin them.
This would lessen the need for fossil fuels to be burned to produce the steam in the first place. And may remove visual unappealing cooling towers so there would be fewer complaints when plans are put forward to build power staions.
This principle may be applied to any power facility that bases it's production of electricity on steam driven turbines.i,e nuclear.

Please feel free to post your thoughts on this

That's a great idea Alex

How would you funnel the steam from the towers through pipes?

It’s great that you’re thinking creatively about energy conservation. Unfortunately this particular idea is unlikely to work. The white cloud you see above cooling towers is condensed water vapor from the cooling water system, not steam from the turbines. It consists of small droplets of liquid water, not steam, and it’s mixed with large volumes of saturated air. This means its useful energy level is very small.

The turbine steam operates in a closed circuit. The only loss of steam is from blowdown (and leaks). The cooling water is separate. In some district heating systems the cooling water is used as a heat source, which reduces the amount of heat wasted in the cooling towers.

Trying to funnel the steam, would work against the purpose of its existence, Cooling. Even if practical (not) the total energy out put minimal at best.

There are steam driven, many things including production of electricity. Geo-thermal power is a big player and worth a 'google search.