Directory:Energy Tower Perpetual

From PESWiki

Down-Draft Energy Towers, proposed by Robert J. Rohatensky, are like a funnel, with a method to remove heat at the top of the tower causing the cold heavy air to fall down the tower and drive electrical generation turbines.

This initial design has a fundamental flaw and was upgraded to a new design at: Directory:Bi-Directional Energy Tower

-- Author, Rohar1 13:24, 1 Sep 2006 (EDT)

The following page, which pointed out the flaw and led to the upgrade, is kept here for historic archive purposes.

Assessment 

New Energy Congress member and PES Network R&D Director, Ken Rauen, does not think this design will serve as an energy generation method. He says that at best, it is an energy-requiring dehumidifier.

Proponent Websites

• http://www.energytower.org - Published in Aug. 2006
  • Self Powered Heat Pump
  • Steam Powered Water Pump

How it Works

A down draft chimney utilizes a heat pump at the top of the tower to extract energy and cool air. The cold heavy air falls and creates a downward pressure to drive electrical generation turbines. This is opposite the idea of a solar tower and uses the ground as a solar collector which greatly reduces costs and land requirements.

Contributed Improvements to Displayed Design

2006-08-26 (Robert J. Rohatensky) - A rotating air intake at the top controlled to face into prevailing winds would increase performance and provide radiant heat insulation over the cooling coils. It should also improve system startup.

Benefits

Quoting from http://www.energytower.org

• The design does not require a water source and the construction may be placed anywhere there is daytime heating of air
• The more heat (energy) captured at the top of the tower by the cooling system, the larger the force of the air down the tower and through the turbine. This should provide a highly efficient system where an increase of heat capture at the top provides an increase of the power output the lower turbine.
• The condensation on the cooling coils at the top may be used to provide a clean domestic water source at distilled water quality as a by-product.
• If I understand Professor Zaslavsky's design, his intent is to use the weight of moist, evaporatively cooled air. I propose that cooling the air with refrigerant coils sufficiently will cause air with 100% relative humidity if it contains any humidity at all prior to cooling. Cooling the air with a water mist will only cool until the air is 100% relative humidity and then any additional water added to the system is innefficient, only cooling the air by the temperature difference of the source water. Any energy captured from the falling water is lower than the energy required to pump it to the top.
• A refrigerative system will work in all relative humidity situations, producing more water by-product in high humidity situations. The total energy output should be based on the temperature difference generated at the inside of the top of the tower and the external air at the bottom. This allows this system to be placed in extreme hot arid locations with no available water source and it will produce water if there is any moisture in the air.
• The energy required to pump water to the top of the tower is eliminated and replaced with a heat pump system that should have a positive energy gain (4-10 times the input energy for existing heat pump systems).
• The system should operate in a wide range of climates with the limitation that there is sufficient heat at ground level to allow for a large air temperature difference to be created by the cooling coils.

No Patents / Open Source

Rohatensky has published his concept openly on the Internet, rather than pursuing a patent. He supplies the following reasoning.

"[I would like to] comment on ... the explanation of why I posted the idea on the Internet rather than to try and secure a patent. It's a difficult concept to explain in a capitalistic society and not have people assume that the idea has no value because I am not hording it trying to get rich from it."

"My reasoning follows the Linus Torvalds approach with Linux and why Linux has done so well against established commercial Unix and Microsoft when other commercial competition with Microsoft was crushed. Even in the case of a large company like IBM trying to compete with Windows (OS/2), it was a failure. I think that companies trying to compete with the estabished fossil fuel industry will have even more difficulty than competing with MicroSoft. The example from Linux and other open source projects shows that it is possible to compete with large corporations when you aren't trying to make money.

1. "I want to see the commoditization of the system as soon as possible
2. "I believe that any idea that will cause the fossil fuel industry to lose profit will be seized by the industry for profit (the companies have an obligation to their shareholders)
3. "I thought that if I am willing to waive making a profit from the idea, it would entice others that hopefully know more than me to help with the project (this is what made Linux a success)
4. "I have a wife, 3 kids, a great dog, a pretty good career and I am reasonably happy. I am believe that if I made a significant contribution to making the world a better place, I would be happier than if I was rich."

He also says:

"I hope that resources with the technical and financial ability to move this idea through the detail design, prototype, performance improvement and full scale implementation stages will see the merit and assist in this project."

Original Design (Water Spray Cooling Method)

• "Solar Energy Without a Collector" - Dan Zaslavlsky, Technion - Israel Institute of Technology - The central idea is to cool the hot and dry air of the desert by a fine spray of water (evaporative cooling). The cooled air contracts and obtains a higher density thereby falling and creating a downdraft. The hot air is supplied day and night. Thus, an Energy Tower will produce electricity day and night.
• www.energytower.net - The “Energy Towers�? is a world changing clean energy technology developed by Professor Dan Zaslavsky at the Technion, Israel. The Energy Tower has the ability to produce enormous amounts of electricity from two inexhaustible sources, hot dry air and sea water while producing no greenhouse gases.
• Energy Towers - The cost of electricity from the Energy Towers is even lower than the lower limit of costs from coal and gas at 5% interest rate. North Africa has the potential to provide the whole of Europe with clean renewable electricity. Furthermore, it is estimated that seawater desalination could be obtained with some 45% cost reduction. The overall volume of desalinated water could reach 10-20 times the Nile River. Thus, north Africa could become the food and energy store for Europe.
• Sharav Sluices Ltd. recently received seed money to begin designing a scaled up prototype of its unique technology to produce electricity from dry desert air and brackish or sea water. Israel’s Ministry of Energy is endorsing the project which will produce power at a cost of 2.5 to 3.5 cents per kwh. A by-product of the technology will be desalinated water at a cost of approximately half of today’s cost per cubic meter. See also Professor Zaslavsky's Sharav Sluices.
• Energy Towers: Pros and Cons of the Arubot Sharav Alternative Energy Proposal
• Interim Report June 2005 (pdf file) - Evaluation of the potential of electricity and desalinated water supply by using technology of "Energy Towers" for Australia and America

In the News

• Energy Towers Touted as Future Source of Electricity - The idea is the brain-child of Professor Dan Zaslavsky and makes use of the convection of air through a hollow tower. Cold water droplets sprayed into the top of tower evaporate, cooling the air which then sinks to the bottom of the tower and turns the turbines. Although the total area required for such a plant would be twice that of a conventional power plant, only a tenth of the area is required to generate the same electricity from solar panels. (Jewish Federation of Greater Monmouth County; September 14, 2003)
• French backer close to investing in sharav energy tower project - The giant French industrial conglomerate Alstom is in advanced negotiations to invest in the establishment of an "Energy Tower". Plans call for the construction of a 1,000-meter-high cylindrical tower with a 400-meter diameter. Such a tower has yet to be built anywhere in the world. One Energy Tower could produce around 800 megawatts a year of power at a cost of about 4.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. (Haaretz)

Comments

See Discussion page

Related Patents

On August 15, 2006 the USPO granted patent 7,089,740 for a "Method of generating power from naturally occurring heat without fuels and motors using the same". This device basically is a Steam Engine using a different working fluid than water, but it demonstrates that transferring heat into mechanical energy can be done with a low temperature heat source.

Permissions

The quotations from Rohatensky's website are with permission. Rohantensky first posted this page here, and has contributed to its development and dialogue.

Upgraded Version

The above initial design has a fundamental flaw and was upgraded to a new design at: Directory:Bi-Directional Energy Tower -- Author, Rohar1 13:24, 1 Sep 2006 (EDT)

See also

• Directory:Solar Tower
• Directory:Solar

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