Stephen A. Lawrence wrote:

Pure steam, hotter than 100C, is a stable effluent: If the power output varies a little bit, you'll still be making pure steam at some temperature above 100C.

Pure steam, at 100C, is *not* stable: If the output power varies just a little, you'll either be making a mixture of water+steam (if the power drops) or superheated steam (if the power increases).

To maintain the output in an unstable state you either need phenomenal good luck or you need active feedback.

Yes, but this is not hard to arrange. When you steam artichokes for an hour, you have to peek into the pot from time to time to make sure the water level is not too low (add more water), or it has not stopped boiling (raise the heat). Rossi does this by watching the temperature. When it starts to drop, there's too much water so he turns up the heat. When it starts to rise, he turns down the heat. You do not need second-by-second adjustments to do this.

The shape of the e-Cats is telling. There is plenty of space for boiling liquid water at the bottom, a large chimney, and the temperature sensor is at the top. Very little unvaporized water will escape from this system. It would be easier to keep the water level right with glass tube on the outside or a water-level sensor, but Rossi tends to do things the hard way. It is certainly not impossible to do it by listening and watching the temperature. I have enough experience steaming artichokes to know that.

The Defkalion reactor primary cooling loops are all liquid phase, and they stay liquid even when the application calls for water steam. They use glycol or some other liquid with a high boiling point. This makes much more sense than Rossi's manual minute-to-minute adjustments for boiling water.

- Jed

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