Classifications

• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F03—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS; WIND, SPRING, OR WEIGHT MOTORS; PRODUCING MECHANICAL POWER OR A REACTIVE PROPULSIVE THRUST, NOT OTHERWISE PROVIDED FOR
  • F03B—MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS
  • F03B13/00—Adaptations of machines or engines for special use; Combinations of machines or engines with driving or driven apparatus; Power stations or aggregates
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
  • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
  • F05B2220/00—Application
  • F05B2220/20—Application within closed fluid conduits, e.g. pipes
• • F—MECHANICAL ENGINEERING; LIGHTING; HEATING; WEAPONS; BLASTING
  • F05—INDEXING SCHEMES RELATING TO ENGINES OR PUMPS IN VARIOUS SUBCLASSES OF CLASSES F01-F04
  • F05B—INDEXING SCHEME RELATING TO WIND, SPRING, WEIGHT, INERTIA OR LIKE MOTORS, TO MACHINES OR ENGINES FOR LIQUIDS COVERED BY SUBCLASSES F03B, F03D AND F03G
  • F05B2220/00—Application
  • F05B2220/60—Application making use of surplus or waste energy
  • F05B2220/602—Application making use of surplus or waste energy with energy recovery turbines
• • Y—GENERAL TAGGING OF NEW TECHNOLOGICAL DEVELOPMENTS; GENERAL TAGGING OF CROSS-SECTIONAL TECHNOLOGIES SPANNING OVER SEVERAL SECTIONS OF THE IPC; TECHNICAL SUBJECTS COVERED BY FORMER USPC CROSS-REFERENCE ART COLLECTIONS [XRACs] AND DIGESTS
  • Y02—TECHNOLOGIES OR APPLICATIONS FOR MITIGATION OR ADAPTATION AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE
  • Y02B—CLIMATE CHANGE MITIGATION TECHNOLOGIES RELATED TO BUILDINGS, e.g. HOUSING, HOUSE APPLIANCES OR RELATED END-USER APPLICATIONS
  • Y02B10/00—Integration of renewable energy sources in buildings
  • Y02B10/50—Hydropower in dwellings

Definitions

• Another object of this invention is to provide new and useful apparatus for the generation of electrical power. Another object is to provide such apparatus which does not rely upon increased use of energy to make it operate, and which utilizes only energy which otherwise would be wasted.
• a further object is to provide such apparatus in which the electrical power is generated in convenient locations, without the requirement that it be transported long distances with resultant additional expense and loss of power.
• apparatus comprising a high-rise building waste-water conduit system for delivering waste-water from a high-rise building to an external waste-water disposal sewer line, and a hydroelectric generator of electrical power installed in said waste-water conduit system for generating electrical power in response to the flow of waste-water from that conduit system to the sewer line.
• the high-rise building waste-water conduit system is that which is normally in place in many modern high-rise buildings, and need not be especially constructed for the present purpose; rather, the present system employs such in-place conduit system as a part thereof, and the only additional apparatus is the hydroelectric generator, preferably with suitable controls and monitoring instruments, and which is preferably packaged as a single unit which need only be connected in series with the line from the building waste-water conduit system to the public sewer.
• the system may be used in such manner that all power generated by the generator is utilized, as for example by using it to charge storage batteries from which the stored electrical energy may be drawn as needed, preferably the system is designed so that the electrical output is connected to the alternating-current electrical service lines automatically only so long as its output is of suitable voltage level and, in the case of an AC system, so long as this output is also of aplitiste frequency, but is automatically disconnected when the voltage and/or frequency is not correct.
• the water used to actuate the hydroelectric generator preferably is that from the clean waste-water line of the high-rise building, together with the water from storm drains on the building.
• the flow of waste water would occur only on the relatively infrequent occasions when water is being used by the house-holder or when there has been a heavy rain.
• a relatively large continuous supply of waste water will normally be produced, due for example to the large number of sinks in the building, a number of which will generally be operating at the same time, and also due to such special apparatus as air conditioning and heating systems which provide, in many cases, a rather steady flow of overflow waste water.
• apparatus which limits the flow of water to the hydroelectric generator to a predetermined maximum level so as to avoid undesired backup of the water when the supply of water is unusually large as by means of automatic water-flow throttling means which automatically bypasses excess flow around the hydraulic generator to the sewer line at such times.
• Fig. 1 is a schematic side elevational view of a structure embodying the invention
• Fig. 2 is a schematic side view of the contents of the hydroelectric unit of Fig. 1;
• Fig. 3 is a side view of the interior of one physical form which the hydroelectric unit may take;
• Fig. 4 is a top view of the unit of Fig. 3;
• Fig. 5 is a fragmentary sectional view taken along lines 5-5 of Fig. 3;
• Fig. 6 is an enlarged fragmentary view of the front face of the kilowatt-hour meter of Fig. 3.
• a high- rise building 10 which may for example be a 40-story apartment building, although anything having five or more stories may be considered a high-rise building for the present purposes.
• the above-ground portion of the building will normally contain a number of branch lines, as from various sinks or from air conditioning units on the roof, or from any other apparatus producing waste water, which branch lines are merged in the conduit system to supply their liquid effluent to basement waste-water line 14; similarly, the rain water collection system may involve a number of branch conduits, merging eventually into the basement waste-water line 16.
• the water from lines 14 and 16 is supplied by the common line 17 to the inlet conduit 18 of hydroelectric unit 20, provided in accordance with the invention, the outlet conduit 22 of which is connected to an effluent line 24 leading to an external sewer pipe 26 of usual type.
• Hydroelectric unit 20 develops, in response to the flow of waste water through it, electrical power on its electrical output line 30, which power is delivered to an electrical terminal box 32.
• the latter terminal box receives the usual public-service 3-wire electrical power over electrical input line 34, and delivers electrical power to electrical loads in building 10 over ele trical building-supply line 36, in the usual way.
• the modification of the existing system required by the invention involves merely the inclusion of the hydroelec tric unit 20 in the common waste-water line leading to sewer pipe 26, and provision of the electrical output line 30 from the generator output of the hydroelectric unit to the terminal box 32. .
• Fig. 2 is a schematic illustration of a prefer ed form of contents of the hydroelectric unit 20 of Fig. 1, and parts corresponding to those of Fig. 1 are indica ed by corresponding numerals.
• inlet waste-water conduit 18 delivers waste water through manual shut-off valve 40 to turbine 42, whence it passes through manual shut-off valve 44 to the building waste-water effluent line 24 for delivery to sewer pipe 26.
• Manual shut-off valves 40 and 44 permit one to completely shut off the added flow path just described, during installation or repair, for example.
• An automatic gate valve 50 is in this example connected in shunt with the liquid path through the turbine, and serves to bypass any flow above that which the turbine can properly accommodate; for the latter purpose, a flow-rate sensor device 49 of conventional form is located in the conduit feeding water to the turbine, and is electrically connected to the contro element 51 of gate valve 50 to open valve 50 from its normally-closed position progressively further as the flow to turbine 42 tends to increase above a selected level, thereby holding the flow through the turbine substantially constant and preventing back-up of water into inlet conduit 18 under heavy-flow conditions.
• a manual over-ride control 51A is preferably provided on gate valve 50 to permit it to be held open when manual valves 40 and 44 are closed.
• Generator 52 is driven from the rotating shaft of turbine 42, and may be provided with appropriate gear ing so that the desired output from the generator will be obtained when the turbine is turning at a convenient rate.
• a conventional automatic switch 54 delivers output from generator 52 to kilowatt-hour meter 56 and thence to terminal board 58 so long as the turbine is rotating in a desired range of speeds, and is effective to sense when the frequency and voltage of the generator, or either of them, is inappropriate for supply to the terminal board 58 and for delivery over line 30 to service lines both inside and outside of the building, and to open at such times.
• gate valve 50 will be in its fully-closed position to divert a maximum amount of water to the turbine, but there will then be no water to flow through the turbine or to produce electricity from generator 52; at such time, automatic switch 54 will be in its open position, disconnecting the generator output terminals from the terminals at terminal board 58, as desired.
• the sys tern will not in any way interfere with the normal operation of the public service lines supplying electricity to the building facilities.
• valve 50 will be modulated to a proportionally more open condition, thus diverting the excess flow directly to the effluent line 24 and to sewer pipe 26 and preventing back-up of water in the building waste-water risers. Further, valve 50 will automatically adjust its aperture to maintain the waste-water flow through the turbine at the rate which will drive the turbine at the desired frequency and with the desired output voltage.
• Fig. 5 illustrates one possible physical form for the turbine and generator arrangement, which has been found convenient where, as here, the turbine required is of relatively small size.
• the turbine 42 comprises a relatively small liquid pump, which in other applications would be driven from a suitable motor to drive fluid through its outlet; in this example, however, its outlet is used as the water inlet so that the pump blades are driven by the liquid, which in turn drives the generator.
• turbines designed especially for this use having the appropriate water-passing capacity and maximum efficiency under the particular conditions of operation, may be designed and used for this purpose.
• the generator 52 and the gear 52A are located outside of the housing 100 of the unit 20.
• the electrical power generated by the system illustrated is not at the expense of another source of power, but rather the generated electrical power is derived entirely from waste energy, namely the energy of the waste water flowing from the building to the sewer pipe.
• the water flow of clean waste-water from the building may typically vary from 12,000 to 35,000 gallons per minute, and from said flow a steady electrical power output of about 100 KW at 230 volts and 60 hertz may be derived by the hydroelectric unit. Even if this amount of power is not used in the building, the power will be accepted by the public service power line for use elsewhere and will not be wasted. Such flow of power to the public service lines may, if desired, be metered and a reimbursement for it arranged for with the public power company.

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• Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Chemical & Material Sciences (AREA)
• Combustion & Propulsion (AREA)
• Mechanical Engineering (AREA)
• General Engineering & Computer Science (AREA)
• Other Liquid Machine Or Engine Such As Wave Power Use (AREA)
• Control Of Eletrric Generators (AREA)

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• 1982
  • 1982-06-08 EP EP19820902290 patent/EP0111480A4/de not_active Withdrawn
  • 1982-06-08 WO PCT/US1982/000792 patent/WO1983004425A1/en not_active Application Discontinuation

Patent Citations (3)

Non-Patent Citations (2)

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