IMPROVED HYDROELECTRIC POWER SYSTEMS

Field of invention

The present invention relates to hydroelectric power plants and in particular to a hydroelectric power plant which can operate independently of a huge water source such as a river or the sea. Further the hydroelectric plant of this invention is relatively cheap to operate compared to existing hydroelectric systems as it requires little fuel other than a small amount of electricity for its operation. The invention also relates to a hydro injector that supplies water under pressure to the turbine(s) of the power plant. This invention also relates to a pressure vessel which controls the pressure of water from the hydro injector and supplies pressurised water to the turbine(s). The system of this invention is typically free of pollutants and can reduce carbon emissions.

Description of Related Art

This world is hungry of electricity. There are different sources for creating electricity and each type of electricity generation has its own demerits. The use of fossil fuel causes the fossil fuel to deteriorate and it increases the consumption of fossil fuel around the world. Further it damages the climate. In certain parts of the world dams can create manmade tsunami. Furthermore a dam in a river can cause sea salt water to go underground, whereby fertility of soil is decreased. A good example of this is in Bangladesh. Moreover the creation of a dam in a river between countries can create growing conflicts about ownership of the river land.

As illustrated in Figure 1 (element 4, 5 and 6), in the production of electricity by hydroelectric facilities turbine generator(s) convert(s) mechanical energy created by water flow to electric energy. The turbine generators may then be connected to transformers which transforms electricity to national grid.

There are different types of mechanism which are being used and have been used so far to generate the required water flow to drive the turbines. The most common is the use of a dam which backs up large volumes of water and controls water flow under gravity through the turbine to generate electricity. Another popular mechanism is using the run-off river which is different from using dam. In this mechanism flow of river water is diverted through canal(s) to turbine(s) to generate electricity.

Yet another mechanism is known as pump-storage which uses the process of a dam but it pumps water from a water source downhill up to a reservoir uphill for future use under gravity when the electricity is required.

The hydroelectric system of the current invention doesn’t need to create a dam or a river, it doesn’t need the run-off river, and it doesn’t need to pump-store water from downhill to a reservoir uphill to generate water flow to create electricity. The invention simply requires a deep water area in which a hydro injector maybe installed to feed water from the deep water area under pressure to a turbine. The invention further provides a hydro injector which can be used to feed the water in the system of the invention.

According to the present invention, water is provided under pressure from a hydro injector to a turbine which is driven by the pressure of the water to produce electricity.

The invention also provides a hydro injector that may be used for delivery of the water under pressure to the turbine. The hydro injector is preferably submerged in the water source and comprises a series of sections each one of which is linked by a pipe to a water vessel from which the water is provided under pressure to one or more turbines. The injector is mounted in a way that it can be moved to eject water from the water source under pressure into the pressure vessel from which it is provided to the turbine(s).

For example, the injector may be mounted so that it can oscillate to and fro within the water source whereby every oscillation delivers a desired amount of water from the deep water source to the water supply source under the prescribed pressure. In a preferred embodiment a total of about 2000 tonnes of water are delivered to the water vessel during each oscillation. The oscillation of the hydro injector may be controlled by an electric motor which is connected to the hydro injector in a manner that causes the oscillation which can be accomplished by providing levers at the top of the hydro injector which extend above the surface of the deep water source and are connected to the motor by cables enabling the levers to be pulled to and fro to cause the oscillation of the hydro injector within the water source. The invention requires a deep water source which may be a natural water source or a manmade water source. The minimum size of the water source required will depend upon the desired capacity of the hydroelectric power plant that the water is used to drive. However a typical, useful water source will have a depth of from 25 to 50 meters and a length and width in the range of from 80 meters to 200 meters. In a preferred embodiment the water source should be such that the hydro injector is capable of delivering from 200000 to 250000 litres of water per second to the turbine. In a further embodiment the water is recycled to the water source after it has passed through and activated the turbine.

The use of a hydroelectric facility of this invention meets the demand of world electricity, generating renewable energy, it lessens common river country conflict, and it avoids manmade tsunami. Furthermore, installation of a plant according to this invention avoids the creation of desert which can be caused by river damming, and it avoids the problem of the sea salt water going underground and therefore maintains the fertility of soil.

The hydroelectric power plant of this invention is environment friendly. The plant installation needs a smaller area than traditional hydroelectric facilities. It is easier to build than traditional hydroelectric facilities. There may be a strange sound at starting and which will continue at the same level, but it will not affect environment, the range of the sound will be limited to the production area. An additional advantage is that the recycled water will be cleaner.

The present invention is illustrated by reference to the accompanying drawings in which

Figure 1 is a schematic illustration of how electricity can be created and distributed by this invention.

Figure 2 is a schematic illustration of the drive system for the hydro injector of the present invention.

Figure 3 shows the operation of the present intention.

Figure 4 is a cut away figure showing the upper section of a hydro injector according to the invention.

Figure 5 is a three dimension design of the hydro injector. Figure 6 shows a section of installation of lever in Figure 4.

Figure 7 shows the schematic illustration of the hydro injector.

Figure 8 and 9 are cut away sections of pressure vessel.

Figure 1 shows a water supply source (3) the upper part of a hydro injector is contained in tower (2), the lower section and the deep water source are not shown. Water in the supply source (3) is delivered from the deep water source by the hydro injector and then delivered from the supply source (3) under pressure (by means shown in Figure 5) to one or more turbines (5) which are driven by the water to generate electricity which passes to the transformer (4) and then onto a grid system (6).

(1) in Figure 1 is a tower which contains an electric motor (22) and Figure 2 shows how the motor (22) can be connected to levers (7) in a second tower (2) which contains the upper section of the hydro injector by cables (9). These cables can be moved by the electric motor in tower-1 to move the hydro injector to and fro to cause the submerged section (8) of the hydro injector to deliver water from the deep water source to a source such as the water source (3) shown in Figure 1.

Figure 3 is an illustration of the entire system showing how the submerged section of the hydro injector (8) can be oscillated by the cables (9) connected to the levers (7). (10) also provides a communication stair to enable maintenance to be performed.

In Figure 3 (11) depicts water source provided by the hydro injector which is also named as pressure vessel that injects the water to drive the turbine (5) which generates the electricity which passes to the transformer (4) and then to grid (6). (23) shows an exhaust pipe for the water exiting the turbine which can be recycled to the deep water source (3).

Figure 4 shows how one of the levers (7) in tower-2 is connected to the lower section of the hydro injector by means of a cam shaft (14); bearing (12) and the span (13) which is integral with two pillars (15) that extend downwardly into the water source (3).

Figure 5 shows heavy duty columns (15).

Figure 6 shows the alignment of cam shaft (14) bearing (12) and span (13), on top of which levers (7) are installed. Figure 7 shows a segment of the hydro injector system containing numerous cell by where each cell is made up with to fixed plates (17A), middle fixed plates (17B), (18A) are water catcher of flexible plates (18B) are water driver of flexible plates and (16) are heavy duty beams, (21) are pullers on each layer and each layer is provided with a flexible water exit Pipe (19).

Figure 8 shows the delivery of water under pressure from the water source (11) to a turbine (5) thereby causing rotation of the turbine to generate electricity. The water (23) exiting from the turbine can be recycled to the deep water source.

Figure 9 shows an alternate embodiment to the system of Figure 8 where pressure adaptors (11 A) are provided in the delivery water in order to achieve better control of the pressure of the water delivered to the turbine (5).

Figure 10 illustrates the water flow pattern at the water intake of Figure 3.

Detailed Description

A hydroelectric plant of this invention can be provided in an area no greater than 1 square mile which includes the deep water area and ground surface.

The deep water area (typically about 30 m deep, 150m length, 100m width) is needed and in a preferred embodiment four heavy duty columns will be installed therein in order to support the heavy weight of tower-2 and other heavy duty equipment.

A preferred plant includes two towers. Tower-1 (preferably about 30 meter x 50 meter area and height 30 meter) setup on land. Inside the first tower there will be an electric motor with starter, governor and timer. Tower-1 will be a distance (such as 200 meter) away from a second tower, tower-2 (preferably 30 meter x 50 meter and height 100 meter). There will be a communication stair and connector from tower-1 to tower-2. Inside tower-2 there will be at least two heavy duty levers as part of the hydro injector which are installed next to the two opposite side walls of tower-2 and both of them are set facing tower-1. The levers will be installed on a cam shaft and the cam shaft will be on a bearing and the bearing will be installed on span. The two levers are connected together by a connecting rod on top side. The extension of this rod is connected to a special pinion on tower-1. A heavy weight fly wheel may be connected to this pinion. In this way the motor in tower-1 can operate the pinion in a way whereby the connecting rod can move the levers in tower-2 back and forth in a pendulum manner.

Conveniently one or more turbines are positioned between the towers. The turbines will be installed so that they can be fed with water by a heavy duty circular pipe and are preferably connected in series, the pipe can be fitted underground as required. The turbines will be spinning under the pressure of the water and the spinning of the turbine will generate electricity.

A heavy duty hydro injector will be installed underwater in between the four heavy duty columns in the deep water area. The pattern of the hydro injector is flat and three dimension rectangular. The hydro injector will preferably consist of numerous cells as indicated in Figure 7 the actual number will be according to requirement.

As shown in Figure 7 each cell of the hydro injector consists of three plates. The top two plates are fixed, and the bottom plate is flexible. All fixed plates are connected with a heavy duty span which is connected with cam shafts as shown in Figure 6. Check valves will be installed in the bottom and middle plunger plates of every layer and non-return valves will be installed on top plunger plate of every layer as shown in Figure 7.

Inside and outside of the injector there will be several beams on each flexible plunger plates. Every beam is connected with several pullers and all the pullers from inside and outside will be connected to the main beam on tower-2.

The Inlet of each cell of the hydro injector is a heavy duty flexible plunger plate through which water enters the cell with each oscillation. The outlet of each cell of the hydro injector are numerous non return valves which is connected to a pressure vessel by a flexible pipe (15 to 22 mm diameter).

The pressure vessel will be heavy duty and will not be used as a storage but as a vessel for delivery of pressurised water to the turbine(s) and there will be pressure adapter(s) which controls the pressurised fluid from the injector and forward them to the turbines. The pressure vessel can be submerged or on each surface.

All the pipes will be connected to one side of the vessel. On the opposite side of the pressure vessel a 2 meter diameter pipe is installed which is connected to the turbine. Every turbine will preferably be connected to one transformer individually. Transformer will be used to transform electricity to the national grid.

When the motor is switched on in tower-1 , the pinion pulls the levers in tower-2 in periodic motion typically through an angle of 2 to 4 degree causing a pendulum like movement of the hydro injector.

When the pinion pulls the lever, the cam shaft pulls the flexible plates of every layer with the help of puller and it opens the check valve of the flexible plates which creates water flow. This water flow proceeds through the check valve of middle fixed plates and water enters the fixed box which is between the fixed plates, and check valve closed for middle plate.

From the fixed box water enters the flexible exit pipe through a non return valve on top of the fixed plate, and this water flow enters the pressure vessel through this pipe. All the flexible pipes, which are plugged with non return valves, will drive the proceeding water flow towards the pressurised water source vessel which maintains the water pressure and drives the water through the pipe (2m diameter) which is connected to a turbine. This water flow rotates the turbine in ultra-speed and the turbines will generate electricity and calculations show that the capacity of electricity generated in this manner can be from 500 megawatts to 2000 megawatts.

The exit water from the turbine can be returned to a water recycling unit which can be connected directly to the base deep water area.

Example

Determination of waterfall height

It has been calculated that a typical hydro injector of the present invention creates pressure of

1 , 96, 20000 Pascal within the water as it flows towards the turbine of the system.

It is known that in gravity fed hydroelectric systems, pressure, P = pgh Where h= height of water fall

Acceleration of gravity, g = 9.81 m/s ²

Density of water, p = 1000 kg/m ³

If Pressure, P= 1 , 96, 20,000 Pa. h= P/ pg = 2000 m Accordingly in this calculation the pressure created on the vessel is equivalent to the pressure created from a water fall of 2000m. Here water fall height is used as a symbolic figure to calculate output power of hydroelectric turbine.

Calculating the output power of Hydroelectric Turbine

Using waterfall height to calculate output power of a hydroelectric turbine the simplest formula is

P= Q p g h q

Where

P = electric power in kVA

Q = flow rate in the pipe (m3/s) p = density (kg/m3) g = Acceleration of gravity (m/s ² ) h = waterfall height (m) = global efficiency ratio (usually between 0, 7 and 0, 9)

Hydro Resources

Flow rate: 200 m3/s 200000 l/s

Diameter of pipe: 200 cm

Section of pipe: 3.1416 m ² Speed = 64 m/s

Acceleration of gravity: 9.81 m/s ²

Waterfall height, head: 2000 m

Density: 1000 kg/m3

Maximal power before losses: 3924000 kVA

Loses and Real Electrical Power

Efficiency of turbine: 0.9

Pressure drop factor: 0.9

Other losses: 0.98

Global Efficiency: 0.79

Real apparent power available (in kVA): 3099960 kVA

Cos phi: 0.8

Real active power available (in kW): 2479968 kW

Energy Production

Average number of working day per year: 365 days Average annual energy in output of hydro generator:

21724519680 kWh/year

21724519.68 MWh/year