Ideas On Coal Power Plants

Chemically, the main composition of coal fly ash is amorphous-phase SiO2, Al2O3, CaO, Fe2O3, and FeO. Most of these materials have high hardness on Mohs scale. Therefore, they are used as cement additive. I would like to propose an enhancement to this idea; directly depositing these fly ashes into molded plastic. The flue gas of the coal plant can melt the raw plastic and deposit its content inside it. Leaving out colder gases and no ash. Some of these ash ingredients are already been used as plastic additives. For example: Hygroscope-P is Calcium Oxide in powder form, with a purity of 95%. The function of Hygroscope-P is to absorb moisture and eliminate moisture related problems in plastics and rubber applications. Silicon dioxide is a commonly used additive in plastic films to improve clarity, compressive strength, elasticity, and aging resistance. The molded plastic then can be used in construction. Unlike aerated concrete, this plastic would be much stronger and even replace concrete blocks to carry weight.

The coal plants also produce bottom ash. These ashes stick on the bottom of the furnace and buildup over time. It is difficult to remove them as well. I propose the bottom of the furnace to have a sheet of lead. As the furnace heat up this lead would melt and attract the bottom ashes inside the furnace. All the ashes would be much lighter than lead and float on top. As long as the furnace is heated, the bottom ashes can be collected over the sea of lead. Some of these bottom ashes can also be used as plastic additive. When the furnace is shot down, lead can easily be melted and removed from the bottom of the furnace. A typical coal plant furnace has a temperature higher than lead’s melting point and below lead’s boiling point.

I developed my idea after reading this article https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/materials-science/coal-ash.

Underwater Construction Platform

Offshore underwater construction is a complicated and slow process. I thought about ways to speed up the construction and allow more automation. The solution was to build a cartesian building platform like in CNC machines and 3D printers. In order to accomplish flexible build volume, I thought about using scissor like extensions.  These extensions will be carried by autonomous boats with twin pontoons.  Each boat will carry two extensions; vertical extension to be lowered down to the sea floor, horizontal extension to connect with another extender boat. When four boats reach the construction site, they will extend their extensions to form a cartesian build platform. The pontoons will be filled with sea water to sink the boats slightly to improve stability. Then, other autonomous boats will arrive and attach carriages on the scissor like extensions. The extensions will have rails to stabilize the carriages. Above surface carriages will be used like cranes to lower parts underwater. After that, underwater horizontal extensions will be lowered and mounted. Then, underwater carriages will be mounted on the extensions which then carry the construction arms.

Once the cartesian construction platform is assembled by the robot boats, the underwater construction would begin. The extender boats would double as docking ports for the boats carrying construction material. They will also have vertical wind turbines to generate electricity on site to power the construction arms underwater. Human operators can also be nearby accommodated in another boat.

This method of construction would be much faster than using construction ROVs which cannot carry big and heavy parts. They are also slow and their tether pose big problems. Underwater construction platform would allow high power and data connectivity to the multiple construction arms to speed up construction and precision.