When I began my power industry career years ago (initially in the chemistry lab of a coal-fired power plant), the criticality of proper chemistry control of steam boilers, cooling water systems, and ...

Boilers have enormous thermal mass and are relatively slow to react. Turbines are nimble and quickly answer an operator’s command. Coordinating an entire plant requires an intimate knowledge of both ...

Steam gets scary in many ways at very high temperatures, and a Rankine cycle isn't all that efficient (although can be (and generally is) improved with "reheat" cycles ... which are needed in the ...

All conventional power sources—from coal and gas plants to high-tech nuclear fission and potential future nuclear fusion reactors—boil down to the same basic thing: heating water into steam to spin a ...