Abstract
A STRONG case is made, in a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers on December 10 by Mr. S. B. Donkin, for the adoption, where possible, of the thermal-electric power station. The ordinary electric power station, using coal as a source of energy, has an overall thermal efficiency of about thirty per cent, whereas in a thermal-electric station which, besides supplying electric energy, also distributes the latent heat of the steam for domestic, horticultural and industrial heating, an overall efficiency of 60-70 per cent can be obtained. Where this system could be successfully adopted, it would solve the difficulty which is likely to arise if coal prices advance. That it is practicable is shown by the stations established in the United States, in the U.S.S.Ri. and elsewhere. Industrial plants operating on this system have been installed in England, but these are necessarily limited in effect to the requirements of the individual factory.
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Thermal-Electric Stations. Nature 137, 427 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1038/137427a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/137427a0