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To: gao seng who wrote (134183)	3/29/2001 11:12:02 PM
From: gao seng	Respond to of 769667

Daedalus: Natural currents DAVID JONES The electrochemical industry is largely based on the electrolysis of brine, giving sodium (or sodium hydroxide) and chlorine (or hydrogen chloride). The vast advances in this process have not been matched by the creation of the electricity needed, which is still largely based on steam equipment. This will soon collide with the green ambitions of the British government. Daedalus has therefore been looking at natural sources of high currents at low voltage (the electrochemical ideal). He notes the Gulf Stream, for example, which is largely responsible for warming Britain. As it sweeps between Iceland and the north of Scotland, it cuts across the vertical component of the Earth's magnetic field. This flux-cutting must generate about 10 volts, even if the Gulf Stream is quite sluggish. But Daedalus recalls that many surface ocean currents are superficial affairs, generated by the prevailing winds. The Gulf Stream is more serious, part of the North Atlantic Conveyor; even so, there must be a return flow, quite possibly in some other direction. So Daedalus plans a big polypropylene sheet, stretching at depth from the north of Scotland (Dounreay is usefully industrialized already) to off Reykjavik in Iceland. The polyalkanes are less dense than sea water, and it should be possible to give the sheet a density such that it would float stably at the desired depth, or else it could be floated stably on the denser return flow. Even with just a few volts, the huge expanse of ocean above and below the sheet will have such a low internal resistance that a vast current would be available between the terminations of the sheet at Dounreay. The power for the project would ultimately come from the Sun, or the slowing of the Earth–Moon system. (Daedalus, a lazy fellow, rather likes the idea of a 25-hour day). And, as for any natural power source, efficiency is quite unimportant. The more sheet, the more available current. If cold weather began to indicate the successful slowing or stoppage of the Gulf Stream, there would be plenty of time to reduce the drawn power, or otherwise modify the set-up. Meanwhile sea water, almost entirely brine anyway, would be electrolysed almost automatically at Dounreay, and the chemical industry could breathe again. Other electrolytic industries, such as the manufacture of aluminium, now in places chosen to exploit hydroelectric power, could also be drawn to the site.