this post was submitted on 03 Apr 2026
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Wot if instead of boiling water, we boiled CO2, and instead of boiling CO2, we kept it at high pressure so that it never quite reached boiling or condensation?
Using water is cheaper and easier. That is all that stop your idea from being IRL.
"The only downside of your idea is that it is terrible."
This kills the crab
geothermal typically uses chemicals other than water because they have a lower boiling point
the specific chemical being cheap is relatively unimportant if it’s a closed loop. the cost is next to nothing compared to the whole construction
For now
shouldn't it boil so that it can expands and makes pressure to move a turbine?
why use energy to make a counter pressure
Supercritical phase, it still changes pressure with heat, but there's no abrupt phase transition. This increases efficiency somehow.
different tool for a different purpose. water has a large heat of evaporation which is something that allows for more compact turbines
sCO2 turbines are like 1/30th the size of an equivalent steam turbine.