Friday, September 30, 2011

Got Steam?


Recently, on a walk in Seattle, our executive team was impressed with this industrial site. It brought up the question:  How many cities have their own steam plant?  We have no idea, but we like the way this one looks especially on one of those "ohhh-so-common blue-sky-days" in Seattle.  The location of this plant is actually pretty close to the Elliott Bay waterfront and so we wonder if it uses sea water to make the steam. If you know, leave us a comment. We did find a Wikipedia article that gave us some info, but didn't answer the sea water question. It seems like the answer should be yes.

Another shot of Seattle Steam Company showing a little bit of steam escaping.


Have a good day and thanks for stopping by John's Island. And we hope there is nothing here to get anyone steamed up!

5 comments:

  1. An interesting post as I have never given much thought to a steam plant.

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  2. Wonder what fuel they use to heat the water to make steam? Coal, gas, fuel oil. Hope the EPA doesn't shut it down like they have in Texas.

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  3. http://www.seattlesteam.com/green-building-research.htm

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  4. Thanks for the link. I see the majority of the steam is produced by burning natural gas which is a fossil fuel but it burns pretty clean. It did not mention the source of the water but I don't think you can use sea water because the residue produced would clog up the pipes. I see they have been making steam since 1893 so it must work economically and efficiently.

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