Power Generation Using N2O4
The tendency of N2O4 to reversibly break into NO2 has led to research into its use in advanced power generation systems as a so-called dissociating gas. "Cool" nitrogen tetroxide is compressed and heated, causing it to dissociate into nitrogen dioxide at half the molecular weight. This hot nitrogen dioxide is expanded through a turbine, cooling it and lowering the pressure, and then cooled further in a heat sink, causing it to recombine into nitrogen tetroxide at the original molecular weight. It is then much easier to compress to start the entire cycle again. Such dissociative gas Brayton cycles have the potential to considerably increase efficiencies of power conversion equipment.
Read more about this topic: Dinitrogen Tetroxide
Famous quotes containing the words power and/or generation:
“...men give us most rarely that which we really want, not favor, but—Justice. Nothing is easier than to coax them to pet us like children, nothing more difficult than to persuade them to treat us like responsible human beings.”
—Frances Power Cobbe (1822–1904)
“The next generation of women will enter a world in which they are perceived to have more opportunities for creating fulfilling lives than women have ever had before.”
—Elizabeth Debold (20th century)