1Bubbles and steam electricity

• Main Authors: T. V. Prevenslik, F Greenburg Court
• Other Authors: The Pennsylvania State University CiteSeerX Archives
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Subjects: bubbles; steam electricity; Leidenfrost; lightning; atmospheric electricity; Carbonic acid
• Online Access: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.1.477.3867; http://www.econologie.com/dopage-eau/Steam.pdf

In 1840, Lord Armstrong was the first to study the electrical charge produced as steam escaped from boilers, the phenomenon called steam electricity. In 1969, interest in steam electricity was renewed because of explosions caused by the ignition of chemical vapors during the washing of ship tanks with steam jets. Steam electricity is proposed explained by the bubbles nucleated in the boiling of water droplets, the bubbles behaving like resonant quantum electrodynamic (QED) cavities. During bubble growth as the bubble cavity resonance coincides with vacuum ultraviolet frequencies, the water molecules on the bubble walls dissociate by cavity QED into hydronium H3O+ and hydroxyl OH- ions. After recombination, only about 20 % of the ions are available for electrification, the ions called available ions to be distinguished from the hydronium and hydroxyl ions in the bubble walls described by the pH and pOH of water, called background ions. Boiler water having an acid pH is the result of acid-base equilibrium between dissolved carbon dioxide and carbonic acid, the concentration of background hydronium ions controlled by the buffering action by carbonate and bicarbonate ions. The chemistry may be described by the pH of the boiler water, and if acidic the bubble surface is charged positive by the abundance of background hydronium ions. Available hydronium ions are repulsed from the positive charged bubble surface and tend to the center of the bubble forming a positive charged vapor; whereas, the available hydroxyl ions are attracted to the bubble surface. Bursting of the bubbles at the surface of the droplet produces positive charge steam and negative charged droplets. Conversely, bubbles in boiling water having a basic pH produce a negative charged vapor and positive charged liquid droplets.