Tom Currie

Retired Mechanical Engineer, PhD., Thermofluids expert

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@DRodbone The Juice Media described her as a "stunned mullet"
https://t.co/1WdSoNFwIT

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@RichardDias_CFA @MarkJCarney @vonderleyen If proximity is so important, then why was the U.S. Germany's largest trading partner in 2024? Most of the world's trade is carried by ships and has been for centuries. What is important is that we increase manufacturing at home, so that we are not simply shipping raw materials.

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@DavidZipper There should also be efficiency standards for EVs.
https://t.co/yaIRyuv9Zj

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@DecoupleMedia In the US at least, there are several long-standing regulatory issues, discussed here
https://t.co/afli42lsEU

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@whatisnuclear If all you want is heat, an inexpensive propane heater is probably best. A 20lb canister will give you 433000BTU (127kWh). Just firing up a propane torch or stove will give you the same amount of heat/lb propane, of course. I wish affordable CHP generators were available

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@whatisnuclear You can buy a used one on Ebay for 1200USD.
https://t.co/zOAKIIxR42

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@ECOWARRIORSS The science that keeps a plane in the sky actually shares much in common with climate science, since both use similar computer models to solve the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. These govern flows everywhere, including around aircraft and atmospheric circulations.

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@kirstygogan Ontario Power Generation (OPG) actually did this. They replaced the 4GWe Nanticoke coal station with a 44MW (nameplate capacity) solar facility, which takes up slightly more land. The capacity factor of the solar plant is 18% https://t.co/84jqSuT8AW

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@Dr_Keefer @Mining_Atoms On refinery side, increasing hydrocracker capacity helped because it allowed more use of cracked heavier gas oils with acceptable cetane. Low diesel car uptake meant changes were not needed, but hydrocrackers are still of interest for petrochemicals
https://t.co/yjaSR2jZRW

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@Dr_Keefer @Mining_Atoms Myself and many others studied this, looking at refinery operations and testing automotive diesels with different fuel blends. Broadening the fuel cut, particularly introducing more heavy naptha (a lower boiling product) until you ran into flash point limits helped.

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@AdamParkhomenko @cguld Jeez Roger! Don't be so reserved! Tell us what you really think!

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@Leigh_Phillips Siemens-Gamesa has recently introduced recyclable blades
https://t.co/2hfsKZcfGr

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@joshyoung We have had far too many scientifically illiterate oil and gas investors offering advice on energy strategies. Go back to school and learn enough science to understand climate change and its consequences for god's sake! Greta's learning, are you?

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@OntarioGreens At least you are right about the water part. Without (capacity matching) hydro, you need a crazy amount of infrastructure to get reliable 24/7 electricity out of wind and solar. Unless, of course, you are willing to use fossil gas and CCGT plants to fully back it up

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@MoorsomTim In the province of Quebec in Canada, which gets 90-95% of its electricity from hydropower (and where residents pay 0.05 USD/kWh for electricity), roughly 80% of its residences use electric resistance heating. The utility is incentivizing heat pumps and ETS though

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@Dr_Keefer @CanadiansEnergy Do we always need to follow the lead of the other G7 countries, most of whom have disastrous energy policies? We should observe what they are doing in much of Europe, particularly Germany, Austria and Belgium, and do the opposite!

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@SayNo2SizewellC OMG, there is no way we should have power plants that run 24/7!

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@rahmstorf You will have a prohibitively expensive renewables-based grid, requiring massive amounts of storage, if you do not share electricity with your neighbours

[Tom Currie @TomCurrie4]

@hydroottawa Was Ottawa Hydro paid by the industry lobby group the Canadian Renewable Energy Association to write this article, or did that group just write it for them? Ontario has one of the lowest emitting grids in the world because of nuclear and hydro, not wind and solar.