/Nexus - 0223 - New Times Magazine/pages/0053/image.png)
Page Content (OCR)
SUPERCRITICAL WATER The war against toxic waste could be won with! a simple ingredient-water. Supercritical water, that is. Unbeknown to most, water can exist in a foutth state of a matter apart from as liquid, solid (ice) or gas (ste~am). fOIm this sort of chemical reaction is so per square inch-more than sufficient to promising it has attracted the attention of propel the largest ocean steamer afloat or te ' the Pentagon. The US Department of move eighty laden freight cars in one traiiJ.. Defense and ,Department of Energy have The machine seems to be simply an air funded over a dozen projects with a view to compressor of the simplest sort. eommereialising the technology. It consists of one small cylinder '(six It can be a supereritieal fluid Participants include General Atomics horsepower), with a balance weight of 75 with some interesting properties, e.g., it Corporation, San Diego, California; Eco -pounds, which runs the entire apparatus'; willrnix with oil, and it causes salts to set Waste Technologies of Austin, Texas; and another small cylinder, five inches in diam tle out of solution. Even more amazing, Modell Development Corporation, eter, with seven inches stroke, compresses the supercritieal water can cause substances Framingham, Massachusetts. the air into the tank from which the power containing hydrogen and carbon to 'burn' Supercritieal water lechnology has is utilised. without creating smoke or other lethal potential in the safe disposal of chemical Under ,the piston plate the inventor has residues. weapons, e.g., nerve gas, in purifying waste placed two layers of bars containing eleven It was a French scientist, Baron Charles water discharged from sewage plants, and different minerals, the magnetic influence Cagniard de la Tour, who mixed the first in toxic waste destruction where conven of which is the secret of the inventor. batch of supercritieall fluid in 1821 by heat tional incineration methods leave residual The advantages he claims are durability, ing water in a pressure cooker made from a toxins. economy and simplicity. Expcrts have sealed cannon barrel. He noticed t!m as (Source: From James Wilson, Outrider examined the machine and pronounce it a the water reached a certain temperature, it &iHW, jimwils@aol.com(JimWi/s), 6 success. stopped sloshing when he rocked the can August 1994, via NEXUS OnLine!) In submitting his dcsign to the govern non. The water was too hot to stay liquid, ments named, Mr Timmis claims that the and the pressure too high for the water to WHATEVER HAPPENED TO...? pncumatic generator can not only be become a gas-thus it became 'supercriti Several newspapers have referred to a applied to war vessels as a motor, but can cal'. new invention by one William Timmis, be used as a defence against hostile attacks Today, the little-known properties of which, if successful, will revolutionise by means of air chambers placed behind supercritical water are being researched by motive power. the armour plating. scientist Jurgen Steinle ,in his basement lab The inventor is an unpretentious English (Source: Scientific American. 4 August oratory at the University of Karlsruhe in mechanic residing in Phtsburg, PA, who 1888. page 69; taken/rom KeelyNet BBS via Germany. One of Steinle's experiments claims to have invented a machine by NEXUS OnLine!) involves using a steel reaction vessel, really which untold motive a commercial-style pressure cooker, fittedl power ,can be stored with a porthole-type lid, and positioned or used wi thout the inside an explosion-proof test chamber as expenditure of fuel. an extra precaution. The story goes that Jurgen Steinle has shown that supereriti he has been engaged carl properties emerge when the temperature for two years in per inside the vessel is increased to 705 0 fecting the invention, Fallrenheit, and the pressure reaches 3,200 and is now negotiat pounds per square inch. ing with the govern In Steinle's experiment, the reaction ves ments of England, sel is filled with a mix of 70- per cent water Russia, and the and 30 per cent methane, the main ,ingredi United States for the ent of natura'F gas. Next, commercial-grade sale of the right to use oxygen is injected into the chamber his discovery which, through a line and valve. The result is a jet if after examination of smokeless blue flame which burns for a proves to be what he few seconds, then slowly shrinks and dis claims, wiU revolu appears. However, after cooling, analysis tionise the motive of a water sample reveals no trace of powers of the world, methane whatsoever. All that remains is He claims to be pure water and carbon dioxide. able to create a pres s u..t- The ability of 'supercritical water to per- sure of 20,000 pounds DECEMBER 1994 - JANUARY 1995 NEXUS. 53