IE85908B1 - Large scale water pumping system (energy and fuel free) - Google Patents

Abstract

ABSTRACT A process and apparatus for pumping water at an existing level to very much higher levels, for the purpose of water supply, irrigation or hydro electricity generation, in which no fuel or energy is required other the natural qualities and pressure of deep water and the compressibility of air, with the exception of small amounts of energy, manual or mechanical to operate valves which are both water proof and air tight. The pressure of the water at deep levels is used to compress air in a compression chamber, which compressed air is in turn used to pump or raise the water in the compression chamber to a much higher or required level. The plant and process combined have all the features of conventional engines, steam or internal combustion, excepting that no fuel or energy is required in the process.

Description

Large Scale Water Pumping System Introduction and Description The invention relates to a large scale water pumping system, for the purpose of raising large quantities of water to the heights required to produce hydro electricity. The invention can also be used for water for human consumption and also crop irrigation.

The system also provides for re circulating the Water which has already been used for hydro electrical production, by diverting the tail race of the electrical plant back into the well. In the ease of existing electrical plants and dams the system where the water once used is wasted ,then this invention could be applied to re circulate the used Water The big advantage of the invention is that once constructed, no energy or fuel is required for operation, except for that of opening or closing valves The invention is based on two situations that occur in nature.

First is the fact that deep water results in very high levels of water pressure and the Second is that gas pressure can be used to raise liquids to higher levels than that existing. In the invention the first situation of deep water has to be created by excavating a deep well or sump, and the pressure thus created is then used to compress air in the compression chambers to the level required to in turn raise the water to the higher levels to generate hydro electricity.

Sea water or fresh Water can be used There can be no doubt about the fact of deep water pressure, and there are many everyday examples of liquids being raised to higher levels by gas pressure. The common domestic soda water bottle, now gone out of general use, where gas pressure is used to raise soda water to available domestic use, is one example. A second is in oil industry, where all or virtually all oil raised from deep in the earth’s surface is raised by virtue of gas pressure in the oil wells, usually in quite small bore pipes of 100mm and 150mm diameter. To day everyone is aware that submarines are raised from great depths by expelling water from the ballast tanks by the use of compressed air. There are many other well known examples.

The system can be constructed as an independent power station at any location where a good supply of water is available as in most rivers, or lakes and no great depth is required but an ample and dependent supply is necessary. These should be convenient to rising or higher ground where large reservoirs to store the water might be readily constructed where modern materials for retaining water are used, and no expensive dams are required, but simply earth removal to provide the reservoir capacity..

The scheme is illustrated in five drawings where an example of a well of 365 meters depth is used, and the various formulae and calculations are in the text.

The scheme and how it operates is shown in five drawings. The main drawing is to a scale of 1/3000. This scale is selected merely to illustrate how the system operates, but there are no upper limits to the size of the operation that might be constructed and used and useful action might be derived at the lower levels of depth and pressure, and accordingly all sizes and quantities are claimed for the scheme.

Drawing No 1, to a Scale of 1/3000 shows a Sectional Elevation of the plant, with the Well excavated in rock. Once the well is filled the compression phase can commence. Each of the four compression tanks or chambers each 100m deep and 20m diameter situated on dry land, has an independent rising main and inlet valve to each tank, the tanks Work independently and are not in sequence. When these tanks are full of water and the trapped air compressed the system is ready to operate Each compression tank has and independent higher level rising main to the reservoir. The penstock delivery to the power station is shown, also the tail race returning to the used water to the well for recirculation.

The water pressure at the bottom of the well is520 lbs per square inch or 366 kilograms per square centimeter Drawing No 2 shows a general plan or layout of the system to the same scale. Each sealed compression chamber has its own individual rising main of one meter diameter, rising to a height of 150 m to discharge to the reservoir.

Drawing No 3 shows a section through the Compression Chamben, Scale 1/500. Each Tank would be fitted with an air pressure gauge. The air pressure at the bottom of the tank, before sealing would be 14.9 lbs per sq inch /1.05 kg sq cm. As the water rises the trapped air is compressed, and the rule of compression is that as the volume of air is halved the pressure of the air is doubled. As can be seen in the drawing No 3 this procedure takes place five times resulting in an air pressure of 476.8 lbs sq inch/33.5 kg sq cm.

Once water is drawn of the air pressure at Level Five drops, and as the water pressure at the bottom of the well is greater at 520 lbs/366 kg./cm2 the water drawn of would be immediately replaced, thus resulting in a continuous flow into the reservoir. If not then an automatic valve at Level 3 would close and the water replaced. The controls for the hydraulic system would be located in the power station.

Drawing No 4 shows a diagrammatic section through the system, scale 1/3000 where it can be seen that the water pressure at a depth of 365 in will result in the compression of the air in he tank to 476lbs/33.5 kg. Equally if the top rising main is opened it would support, in an open lm diameter pipe a column of water 365m high approximately.

If the draw off pipe is placed at 1501:: over the top of the compression tank it would result in a flow of 83 cubic meters per second. This flow alone in a single pipe, when fed to the generator would produce 110 Mega Watts maximum electrical output, which compares favourably with many Irish Hydro Electric Plants which produce a peak output of less than this figure.

With the four pressure tanks operating the storage capacity could be very greatly increased, and the maximum output electrical capacity of the plant would depend on the water storage capacity.

If the diameter of the top rising main of mi were replaced with 4 No .5m diameter pipes as shown in the inset in drawing No 4 then the delivery height could be increased four times, and by reducing the diameter an increasing the number of rising mains there are almost no limits to the heights at which water could be delivered.

Drawing No 5 shows the situation in a sea water situation where sea Water could be used by this system to produce inexpensive electricity The formula used to calculate the volumetric flow rate is Hawksley’s formula: W=4.72 DH where W = Cubic feet of water discharged per minute D = Diameter of pipe in inches (39-37) H = Head of water in feet (492.13) L = Length of pipe in feet (32.8) W: 4.72 i(39.37)°(492_13) 32.3 = 177,810.96 cubic feet per minute = 83.8? meters cubed per second The Formula for Electrical Production is P = 77.p.g.h.w where P = I’ower in Joules per second or Watts 1} = Turbine efficiency (0.9) p = Density of water in kg per meter cubed (1000) g = Acceleration due to gravity in meters per second per second (9.81) h = Head of water in meters (150) P = (0.9)(1000)(9.81)(l50)(83.87) = 1 11 mega Watts

Claims (10)

Claims .

1. An apparatus for pumping water from a lower level to a higher level comprising: a Water source, a deep water reservoir with a top water level maintained by replenishment from the water source, one or more air-filled compression chambers, wherein the 10 chambers are situated at an elevation lower than the top water level of the deep water reservoir, independent rising mains for each of the one or more compression chambers, allowing water to enter the compression chambers sourced from the base of the deep water reservoir 15 independent inlet valves to control the ingress of water from the deep water reservoir into the compression chambers, an upper reservoir, at an elevation substantially higher than the top Water level of the deep water reservoir, independent rising mains for each of the one or more 20 compression chambers to allow the flow of water from the base of each compression chamber to the upper reservoir, and independent outlet valves to control the egress of water from the compression chambers to the upper reservoir. 25

2. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the deep water reservoir is of natural origin.

3. An apparatus according to claim 2 wherein the deep water reservoir is the sea. 30

4. An apparatus according to claim 1 wherein the deep water reservoir is excavated.

5. An apparatus according to any of claims 1, 2 or 4 as described and 35 exemplified in any of figures 1-4.

6. An apparatus according to claim 3 as described and exemplified in figure 5.

7. A process for pumping water from a lower to a higher elevation, employing the apparatus of any of claims 1-6, comprising; a first step, wherein for each compression chamber, the inlet valve is open and the outlet valve is closed, causing water to flow into the compression chamber under the natural pressure caused by the weight of water in the deep water reservoir, thereby compressing the air trapped in the compression chamber, and a second step, wherein for each compression chamber, the inlet valve is closed and the outlet valve is open, causing water to flow from the compression chamber to the upper reservoir under the pressure of the air compressed in the first step.

8. A process according to claim 7, where a plurality of compression chambers are operated in such a way as to ensure a continuous flow of water to the upper reservoir.

9. A hydro-electric power station characterised in that the water source for the station is the upper reservoir of the apparatus of any of claims 1-6.

10.a hydro-electric power station where the water supply to the station is provided by means of a process according to claim 7 or 8.