With the operation of power plants, when steam has been used to drive the turbine, an attempt is made to condense it back into water and then the collected water is turned back into steam. This is a similar process with all power stations, whether they use fossil fuels or nuclear power to operate. This process is quite inefficient in that a sizeable quantity of the steam is lost through the condensers being unable to collect all of the gas.
As a way to boost the collection efficiency of the steam, technologists have tried out coating the inside of power plants with graphene, according to Controlled Environments. This layer is ultra-thin — just one atom thick.
Graphene is a remarkably strong and low-weight material (it is 100 times stronger than steel and it conducts heat and electricity with great efficiency). The material is being investigated for many potential applications, including a new generation of quantum computers. The coating for power plants is a new application.
Graphene works because it does not absorb water, but passes it back into the system, thereby conserving more steam. It is also highly durable, meaning that the single atom thick layers would not need replacing very often.
Studies have shown the graphene layer boosts heat transfer, resulting in more steam being collected. Initial figures show a collection efficiency improvement of around 3 percent. This may not sound like much, but in energy and cost terms it is quite considerable. Furthermore, in capturing more steam, this reduces the level of carbon emissions.
The research was conducted at MIT and the findings will soon be published in the journal Nano Letters.
