Patent Application
20160091000
At the present time all industrial devices adapted for the production of non-renewable electric power, independently from their size, are characterized by a poor thermodynamic efficiency. Classic internal combustion engines, independently from being two stroke or four stroke engines and independently from being fed with petrol, kerosene, methane, LPG or gas oil, have unfortunately a mechanical efficiency lower than 30%. The unsolved problem of all internal combustion devices currently available on the market is the extreme energy waste related to the intrinsic heat production typical of the structure and design itself of these engines. The speed, at which the combustion happens, together with their mechanical complexity, dissipates inevitably a high energy amount as heat. Obviously, in order to disperse in the environment the uselessly produced heat, every internal combustion engine is inevitably combined with bulky exchangers or radiators, adapted to dissipate the produced thermal power. In addition, toxic emissions are inevitably associated with the existing internal combustion engines, coming from the combustion of the used hydrocarbons themselves, which are harmful for both the environment and the human health. On the whole, also hydrogen engines demonstrated to have a very little energy efficiency, even lower than 40%. Similarly, all thermal power plants actually working have similar criticality. Poor thermodynamic efficiencies, emissions harmful for the environment and high heat production. Due to the size of this typology of industrial plants, the loss of produced heat is so high to recommend to locate these thermal power plants next to rivers, lakes or still better next to the sea. Speaking about energy:the situation is critical and anyway correlated to devices and plants which are conceptually outworn and provided with poor efficiency and little performance. The overall situation is even worse if criticalities related to the production of atomic energy are analyzed. In this case, in addition to the poor plant efficiency, high production costs and little operative duration of the same, unsolved problems relating the production of radioactive wastes, their management and safe disposal have to be added. As if all this was not enough, all dimensionally significant plants for the production of non-renewable energy, have the disadvantage of being little adaptable, i.e. they are plants that, because of their size and design, are not able at all to modulate their power production over time, or they can do it only partially. The power requirement of each country is very variable over 24 hours, as anyone knows. As a matter of fact, the consumption varies appreciably as a function of user requirements during twenty four hours, so that in Italy the consumption changes from 22 GW in the middle of the night to over 50 GW around noon. In conclusion, the energy consumption varies of 60% during the day, thereby assuming a high modulation ability of production plants. As previously mentioned, most of all the greatest thermal power plants and nuclear plants have great difficulties in reducing or increasing suddenly their power production. This situation causes an energy imbalance in domestic electric networks, thereby methods and devices adapted to allow the power storage when the requirements are lower become essential, i.e. during the night, making it again available when the requirements are greater such as, for example, during the day. In every country this intermittent requirement of electric power further decreases the efficiency of power systems, revealing the need of having a new and efficient method adapted to allow the power storage when there are lower requirements, but allowing its sudden release at user needs. Desirably, all this is carried out with a high efficiency.
The present invention has the intention to solve all the afore said drawbacks, describing an innovative device for the storage and production of electric power that has to be safe, inexpensive and able to store high power amounts but, at the same time, being able to return it again on the electric network in a highly efficient way as requirements of electric power increase.
The present Application describes and claims an innovative electropneumatic device substantially composed of two independent sub-units, connected one to another through a common pressurized piping.
The first sub-unit is composed of a pump, preferably it is composed of a plurality of pumps, still more preferably it is composed of a series of three pumps, which are adapted to allow the potential energy to be stored as compressed air inside one or more apposite storage tanks of said compressed air, so that to be able to feed it to the second sub-unit through at least one pressurized piping.
Said second sub-unit is composed of at least one couple of motors or pneumatic actuators, preferably a plurality of pneumatic actuators, activated in an orderly sequence according to a precise scheduled scheme by the compressed air previously stored up in the storage tank and fed to the first of said pneumatic actuators through a pressurized piping. The reciprocating oscillatory motion, made by said activated pneumatic actuators, is transmitted to a transmission assembly adapted to transform the oscillatory motion typical of said pneumatic actuators in a continuous rotary movement, said transmission assembly being in turn connected to a conventional electric generator.
The first sub-unit of the present invention is provided with an appropriate storage tank, said storage tank of compressed air can be any tank sufficiently strong and safe for the containment of said air, alternatively, said tank can be made so as to have, in its inside, a plurality of sectors, preferably four sectors, adapted to delimit zones of compressed air characterized by different pressures. For example, a zone with maximum pressure at about 80, 100 bars, a zone of medium pressure at about 40, 60 bars, a zone of low pressure at about 25, 30 bars, and lastly a zone of maximum pressure at about 15, 20 bars. Said zones are connected one to another by at least one pressure reducer, independently from how many they are. Said devices for reducing the pressure can be electrically controlled conventional taps adapted to be opened and closed to create or prevent the connection among different independent zones of said tank, so as to distribute the compressed air among said zones according to what imposed by the control unit. The control unit analyzes data coming from the manometers placed in every independent zones, by processing them in order to optimize the distribution of compressed air inside every single zone and the whole tank, so as to maintain the desired pressure as a function of the instant consumption and the instant pumping capacity (related to the power available at that time). This differentiation in the inner structure of the storage tank of the compressed air allows to store up great air amounts at high pressures in relatively little spaces. This is an essential feature in case renewable energy is available. These energy sources, as a matter of fact, being bound to the unforeseeability of weather conditions, independently from being wind or solar energy, must be necessarily stored up in great amounts as compressed air, when the nature makes them available. As a consequence the need of a multi-stage tank arises, which is relatively little and then able to be installed in every garden or roof of every building, and adapted to store up great amounts of high pressure compressed air, up to about 80, 100 bars. The described tank is equipped with a plurality of electrically controlled taps, as many as the compartments it is provided with, so as to feed the primary pneumatic actuators at a pressure of compressed air of about 10 bars. For plants having greater dimensions and for storing great amounts of compressed air, galleries and tunnels present on the territory but no longer in use can be employed. Thanks to the generous capacity of these cavities, great amounts of compressed air can be stored effectively just in hours in which the power requirement is minimum. The tightness, the management simplicity and the total absence of toxicity of this power storage technique allows economic saving, an optimum safe level and duration almost unlimited of these storage deposits. As it has no practical contraindication, the storage of compressed air inside said galleries and tunnels and its subsequent use, could be carried out infinitely, without damaging things or humans. If these galleries will have to be reconverted to other purposes, they would be immediately available and substantially ready for the new uses. The storage of compressed air, in order to increase its efficiency, is carried out preferably through a plurality of compressors. In fact, every compressor is provided with a specific capacity and compression efficiency and then it is used exclusively as a function of the pressure present in the storage tank in that moment. Substantially, when the pressure inside the storage tank is low, all compressors are activated, when it is medium the second compressor is activated, and when the maximum pressure has to be reached, the third compressor is activated. Alternatively, the plurality of compressors can operate individually or in combination, as a function of the power available in such a moment. Therefore, if for example the plant is fed by solar energy and a bright spell happens in a cloudy day, all pumps can be activated simultaneously also if this way is not the most efficient for the power storage. On the contrary, if the plant would have not much power available, only the most little pump would be activated that could operate also at reduced speed, because of being fed by direct current. Obviously, thanks to a conventional inverter, the alternating current can also be used. Alternatively the three compressors can operate in sequence, each one compressing the air up to a certain pressure. When the air pressure reaches about 10 atms, the air can be entered directly into the storage tank from the first air compressor through a piping provided with a check valve, or else it can be sent to the second compressor through a piping provided with a check valve. Said second compressor further comprises the air coming from the first compressor, up to reach a pressure of about 20 atmospheres. In its turn, the air compressed by the second compressor can be directly entered into the storage tank through a piping provided with a check valve, or else it can be sent to a third compressor, adapted to further compress the air coming from the second compressor, through an appropriate pipeline. The third compressor, when a pressure of about 30 atmospheres is reached, enters said air into the storage tank or the gallery conveniently arranged for the so-compressed air containment. Obviously, the storage tank of compressed air, independently from the pressure in its inside, is provided with at least one check valve for compressed air that is placed on every single piping or pipeline feeding it. Substantially, thanks to the modularity of the control unit, all possible combinations can be achieved in order to exploit and optimize at best the single independent storage zones of compressed air.
By providing for a national use, it is necessary to provide for the use of a lot of galleries in order to have a sufficient number of tanks for the storage of compressed air. Every unexpected and accidental loss of compressed air, by being not toxic, would not cause any collateral damage if not the simple drop of system efficiency.
Therefore, the afore said storage system of compressed air allows, at first, to transform the electric power into mechanic power and then the mechanic power into pneumatic power in the guise of compressed air. Obviously, the afore said storage system of compressed air can be effective also for domestic use, i.e. by using a tank of compressed air having little size for family use, adapted to be automatically filled at the middle of the night, when the cost of electric power is greatly lower than the daily one. The system of compressed air, i.e. the various pumps, can be fed by the electric current of the network, by any generator, or else by any renewable energy source such as, for example and not limitatively, photovoltaic panels, aeroturbines or hydroelectric turbines. For illustration purposes, 1 cubic meter of compressed air at 30 bars, by adopting the scheme described in the present Application, can approximately produce about 2 KWh of electric power.
The second unit of said electropneumatic device is focused on the high operation efficiency of pneumatic actuators characterizing it. In the present invention, the motors or pneumatic actuators are used according to a precise scheme that is described in the following of the present Application. The operating scheme of the pneumatic actuators in the present Application provides for the feed of compressed air coming from the pressure reducer connected to the tank, at a final pressure of about 10 bars, to the pneumatic primary actuator. When then work has been carried out, the latter sends the emitted compressed air to at least one secondary pneumatic actuator, preferably to a plurality of secondary pneumatic actuators. Every pneumatic actuator is provided with a maximum travel of 270°, but it can be used in the most convenient range by also exploiting an oscillation with many degrees less. Substantially, every pneumatic actuator has to be considered as a compressed-air motor having an oscillating movement. At least one couple, preferably a plurality, of said pneumatic actuators are connected to a permanent-magnet three-phase electric generator. Said connection happens by means of a specific mechanical converting system, named as mechanical coupler or transmission assembly, adapted to transform the oscillating movement typical of said pneumatic actuators into the continuous rotary movement suitable to create electric power. The operating pressure and the air flow adapted to active said pneumatic actuators, conveniently arranged in the first and second stages as described in the following, are managed by electrovalves having adjustable frequency.
The primary pneumatic actuator of the second sub-unit, i.e. the pneumatic actuator arranged more upstream, is directly fed by the compressed air coming from the pressurized piping at about 10 bars, extending from the storage tank of compressed air and ending directly into the feed duct of the first pneumatic actuator. The pneumatic actuators are arranged so as to integrally recover the air discharged from two side vents, during the normal operation of the first pneumatic actuator, by means of an appropriate couple of pipes for the air recovery. The air discharged from the two side vents of the first pneumatic actuator is, as a matter of fact, still provided with a pressure extremely higher than the atmospheric pressure and then it is still be used for carrying out a mechanical work. In order to prevent the useless dispersion of such an energy into the environment and to exploit said residual pressure differential at best, the air discharged from the two side vents of the primary pneumatic actuator is directly entered into the first couple of pipe for recovering the emitted air and is sent directly to the duct feeding the secondary pneumatic actuators. The high pressure the air still has, now actives said secondary pneumatic actuators arranged exactly on the same axis but downstream of the primary pneumatic actuator. The air coming out from the side vents of the last pneumatic actuator, being now unable of making any mechanical work, is simply released into the outer environment because of not having, by now, any pressure differential significant with respect to the atmospheric pressure. The sequence of pneumatic actuators, together with their direct connection and by being arranged on the same axis, allows to exploit the pressure drop at best, thereby achieving a very high efficiency in exploiting the compressed air previously stored in the storage tank. Obviously, if the starting pressures are higher than 10 bars, it is possible to sequentiate additional pneumatic actuators, till obtaining anyway a pressure, in the side vents, a little higher than the atmospheric pressure, i.e. higher than the atmospheric pressure of about 0.2-0.5 bars. Therefore, the distribution of the primary actuator and the secondary pneumatic actuator/s, forces the used compressed air to carry out all the mechanical work that can be obtained by exploiting its potential energy. On the contrary, if a very low pressure is available, it would be possible to use only one couple of pneumatic actuators as, in this case, the pressure exiting from the side vents of the secondary pneumatic actuator would already be just a little higher than the atmospheric pressure and then no more usable to carry out a work efficiently. The afore described different compressed-air motors, defined as pneumatic actuators, must all necessarily have the same size. This detail becomes necessary in that, differently, instabilities could arise. If a plant having great size has to be made, it is preferred having several main motors, that is a greater number of primary pneumatic actuators, instead of having only one great motor. This because, in this case, the pressure would be better distributed, thereby having the higher incoming pressure immediately. Obviously, every single outlet present in the primary pneumatic actuators according to the present invention, must be provided with at least one check valve.
Let's now proceed to the detailed description of the drawings the present invention is provided with, in which devices and apparatuses connected to the present invention are described for purposes of illustrations and not limitative, in which:
As evidently shown in
The pneumatic actuator 1 is a reverse-flow rotary pneumatic actuators, specifically in
The transmission assembly 21 is adapted to transform the reciprocating rotary motion of a first element, i.e. the actuators 1, 1a, 1b, 1c, into the continuous rotary motion of a second element connected thereto, i.e., of the flywheel 58 and the electric generator 33. The pneumatic actuators 1, 1a, 1b, 1c are reverse-flow rotary pneumatic actuators, in order to transform the movement reversal typical of these actuators into a constant rotary motion, essential for adjusting the production of electric power, the transmission assembly 21 becomes necessary. It has to be noticed that all the pneumatic actuators 1, 1a, 1b, 1c are neatly arranged along an end of the axis 50. On the contrary, the central portion of the axis 50 is inside the transmission assembly 21 itself, on said portion of the axis 50 a gear wheel 26 is mounted. The first freewheel 28, provided with only one and specified mesh way, is interposed between said gear wheel 26 and the shaft 99. A second gear wheel 27, adapted to engage with said first gear wheel 26, and a gear pulley 20, in its turn connected to the second gear pulley 29 through a first drive belt 22, are keyed on a second shaft 25 parallel to said first shaft 99. Said second gear pulley 29 is keyed on the second shaft 25 on which also the second gear wheel 27 is installed. The first gear pulley 20 is keyed on the first shaft 99 on which also the first gear wheel 26 is mounted with the respective first freewheel 28. A second freewheel 51, characterized by having a mesh way opposite with respect to that of the first freewheel 28, is installed between said first gear pulley 20 and said first shaft 99. The electric generator 33 must now rotate in a constant way because of the effect of the transmission system 21, being keyed on a third shaft 44 with which it rotates integrally always in the same way. The first shaft 99 and the third shaft 44 are on the same axis 50. This effect is possible thanks to the third shaft 44, having the longitudinal axis perfectly aligned to that of the first shaft 99, being placed side by side in parallel to the second shaft 25. The shaft 99 and the shaft 44, although being perfectly aligned, are not interconnected directly but they are separated and aligned one to another. The second shaft 25 and the third shaft 44 are connected one to another by means of a second toothed belt 47 placed between a third gear pulley 45 and a fourth gear pulley 46 keyed on the second shaft 25 and the third shaft 44, respectively. The third gear pulley 45 and the fourth gear pulley 46, thanks to the afore said kinematic systems, independently from the activation way of the pneumatic actuator 1, continue rotating in the same direction, thereby transmitting such a constant rotary movement to the electric generator 33. Obviously, the shafts 99, 25 and 44 will have to be installed on apposite bearings interposed among said shafts and the supports 24. The flywheel 58, placed on the shaft 44, is between the transmission assembly 21 and the electric generator 33.
In
In
| Number | Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| 00978/13 | May 2013 | CH | national |
| Filing Document | Filing Date | Country | Kind |
|---|---|---|---|
| PCT/IB2014/000650 | 5/2/2014 | WO | 00 |
