Saturday, March 22, 2008
Energy from "Tornadoes"?
Retired scientist Louis Michaud has plans to generate tornadoes near power plants that could provide a 40% increase in the plants' power output. If the concept works, it could dramatically cut down on the need for building new power plants, instead creating energy from the waste heat of existing plants.
His "atmospheric vortex engines" are large cylindrical structures with an open top, and works similar to a fireplace and chimney. To create a tornado, warm air mixes with cold air. In Michaud's set-up, the warm air comes from the waste heat of a coal plant - but heat could also conceivably come from the sun or other ambient heat source.
When the hot air enters the large cylinder, it rises through the central chamber due to convection. As it rises, the hot air passes through angled ducts that cause the air to rotate like a tornado. Turbines positioned on the sides of the chamber convert the upward wind into electricity.
Because the conditions can be tightly controlled, the energy that could be produced by a tornado vortex would be much greater than the energy from normal winds captured by wind turbines. In fact, Michaud predicts, the cost of electrical energy produced with a vortex engine could be just half the cost of any other alternative energy system.
Full report here
His "atmospheric vortex engines" are large cylindrical structures with an open top, and works similar to a fireplace and chimney. To create a tornado, warm air mixes with cold air. In Michaud's set-up, the warm air comes from the waste heat of a coal plant - but heat could also conceivably come from the sun or other ambient heat source.
When the hot air enters the large cylinder, it rises through the central chamber due to convection. As it rises, the hot air passes through angled ducts that cause the air to rotate like a tornado. Turbines positioned on the sides of the chamber convert the upward wind into electricity.
Because the conditions can be tightly controlled, the energy that could be produced by a tornado vortex would be much greater than the energy from normal winds captured by wind turbines. In fact, Michaud predicts, the cost of electrical energy produced with a vortex engine could be just half the cost of any other alternative energy system.
Full report here
Labels: Energy-Environment-Engineering
PermaLink - Energy from "Tornadoes"? posted by Ecacofonix : 11:49 AM
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