Alternate idea for Fossil Fuel at sea
This is just an off-the-cuff idea using my writers mind, my recollection of past readings, and my personal experience from my US Navy days.
There has been a lot of talk generated by the article I posted <i> The U.S. Navy Just Announced The End Of Big Oil And No One Noticed</i>. I was more intrigued by the step forward of the technology than I was interested in the ideological vitriol of the author. After reading all of the posts I decided that there may be a better way.
Here is my idea;
Constants: Naval ships like the one I was on, an LST, have a bow propeller for turning the ships bow port or starboard.
Limitless electrical energy can be made from static
Undersea turbines http://science.howstuffworks.com/moon-ge...
Should a ship be constructed with a jet-engine-like undersea turbine in its bow its forward motion (or the tide) could be used to generate its electrical needs. Further once power is in the ships batteries it can be used to keep the turbine spinning, generating electric, when it port.
Personally, I think nuclear reactors on Naval ships is the best way to go but I think this idea has merit.
This is just a brain dump and not really intended for anything more than fun discussion.
Opinions?
There has been a lot of talk generated by the article I posted <i> The U.S. Navy Just Announced The End Of Big Oil And No One Noticed</i>. I was more intrigued by the step forward of the technology than I was interested in the ideological vitriol of the author. After reading all of the posts I decided that there may be a better way.
Here is my idea;
Constants: Naval ships like the one I was on, an LST, have a bow propeller for turning the ships bow port or starboard.
Limitless electrical energy can be made from static
Undersea turbines http://science.howstuffworks.com/moon-ge...
Should a ship be constructed with a jet-engine-like undersea turbine in its bow its forward motion (or the tide) could be used to generate its electrical needs. Further once power is in the ships batteries it can be used to keep the turbine spinning, generating electric, when it port.
Personally, I think nuclear reactors on Naval ships is the best way to go but I think this idea has merit.
This is just a brain dump and not really intended for anything more than fun discussion.
Opinions?
That would kind of be like putting electrical generators hooked in parallel with the driveshaft on an electric vehicle. The reasoning would be that the electricity thus generated would go to drive the motors that would propel the vehicle. Alas, there is no perpetual motion machine. The losses are greater than the energy derived.
There is, however, a very opportunistic way to recapture wasted energy and make productive use of it. Today's vehicles principally use the friction between two items to change momentum into heat, thus slowing/stopping the movement. That is not the only way to absorb the momentum. Placing a hydraulic pump into the system and pumping up pressure into an accumulator which can then be released back into the system to propel the system is one opportunity. That works well for vehicles with huge momentum (generally heavy and slow rather than light and very fast). Busses, garbage trucks, delivery trucks, etc.
Oddly enough, I passed up the opportunity to be trained as Nuclear Tech when I signed up. When the recruiter said I'd get a $60K signing bonus if i went nuke and a red-Porsche flashed before my eyes (1985) I realized that it wasn't for me. I'm more of an SUV/Jeep kind of guy and a solid 8 year stint just didn't appeal to me.