Quote:
Originally Posted by Osem
It appears that liquid air 'storage' could help the situation a little but it's still clear to me that we need long term solutions to this problem, especially if we're going to see the sort of population growth that's being predicted and the likelihood that migration is going to remain an issue.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-19785689 |
Yes, I saw that the other day. I'm still trying to decide if the article is demonstrating journalistic ignorance on a massive scale or whether I'm missing something fundamental, because it seems to me that if you super-cool air down to a liquid you're removing the energy from it, rather than storing any energy in it. What you're actually doing, I believe, is creating a source of potential energy, because of the useful work that can be done when the liquid air is allowed to recirculate with other components at 'room temperature'. The actual energy in that system comes from the environment, rather than the liquid air, but it is the liquid air that allows the energy to be extracted.
Any scientists about to enlighten us further?