GB2437743A

GB2437743A - An offshore hydroelectric power station

Info

Publication number: GB2437743A
Application number: GB0609019A
Authority: GB
Inventors: Peter Stanley Le Flem Shepherd
Original assignee: SEAPOWER DEV Ltd
Current assignee: SEAPOWER DEV Ltd
Priority date: 2006-05-05
Filing date: 2006-05-05
Publication date: 2007-11-07
Anticipated expiration: 2026-05-05
Also published as: GB2437743B; GB0609019D0

Abstract

A hydroelectric power station comprising hydroelectric generating apparatus provided in a ship's hull O which can be floated to the required destination under its own power or be towed thereto. The hydroelectric generating apparatus includes a water driven turbine 9 which drives an electric generator 18 below the water level. Power from the electric generator 18 is taken to operate an air compressor 19 which gathers the waste water from the turbine 9 in a tank and scavenges the waste water to above the level of the source of water used to drive the turbine 9.

Description

HYDROELECTRIC POWER STATION

This invention relates to a hydroelectric power station which includes hydroelectric generating apparatus and which can be operated in any source of water which is deep enough, for example a river, lake or sea.

The invention takes advantage of the power of the head of water to drive a turbine or waterwheel located beneath it and allows for the apparatus to be easily movable either under its own power or by towing.

According to the present invention a hydroelectric power station comprises a hydroelectric generating apparatus provided in a ship's hull which can be floated to the required destination under its own power or be towed thereto, said hydroelectric generating apparatus including a water driven turbine which can be driven by a head of water above it. Said turbine driving an electric generator can be located in said ship's hull at a position below the waterline thereof.

The ship's hull can be provided by converting an existing ship, for example, an obsolete tanker or container carrier can be put back into use by providing the hydroelectric generating apparatus within its hull. The ship's engines and crew quarters can be retained and the ship driven by its own power to a desired destination. Alternatively, if the ship's engines are no longer functioning the hull, complete with crew's quarters, could be towed to the required position.

Thus, the existing ship could retain its original motive power engine or engines -Alternatively a hull specifically for the purpose of providing a hydroelectric power station can be constructed.

In a preferred construction two or more water driven turbines are provided and a large number, for example up to fifty or more such turbines could be carried in the hull of a larger tanker or container ship.

Each water driven turbine can be located in a separate compartment in the ship's hull, thus access to the compartments can be easily arranged.

The invention can use the type of hydroelectric power generating means described and claimed in co-pending GB Patent Application No. 0513903.5 filed on July 2005.

With such an arrangement each hydroelectric generating apparatus may comprise a water driven turbine which actuates an electric generator below the water level and includes means for gathering the waste water from the turbine in a tank and scavenging means for returning said waste water to above the level of the source of water used to drive the turbine.

With this arrangement the tank scavenging means can be driven directly or indirectly from the turbine or generator and thus make the apparatus independent of other sources.

In a preferred embodiment of this type the ship's hull provides a structure, at least part of which includes the water powered turbine which actuates the electric generator, a water inlet duct extending from a water entry manifold to said turbine and two or more waste tanks to receive the waste water from the turbine which can be selectively operated. Thus, with this construction one tank can be used to collect waste water from the turbine whilst the other is scavenged.

In a preferred construction wind driven electric driven generators are mounted on the upper deck or decks or the ship to provide further power and solar panels can also be included for electric generators, the panels being mounted on the upper decks of the ship.

Thus, the upper deck of the ship could carry four or five wind driven electric generators and any number of solar panels which can be fitted in the available space.

The invention can be performed in various ways but one embodiment will now be described by way of example and with reference to the accompanying drawings in which: Figure 1 is a diagrammatic representation of a tanker modified to embody the present invention; Figure 2 is a pictorial representation of how the interior of the tanker can be modified to provide a large number of compartment; Figure 3 is a diagrammatic cross-section through the hull of the ship showing the various compartments; Figure 4 is a cross-sectional view of the lower compartments provided in the ship's hull and to a larger scale than Figure 3 to show the hydroelectric generating apparatus in one series of compartments; Figure 5 is a plan view on the line V-V of Figure 4; and, Figure 6 is a plan view at the upper deck level for the part of the upper deck which extends above the area shown in Figure 5 and showing the sea water outlets from the tanks.

Figure 1 shows how the existing hull (1) of a sea-going tanker or container ship is modified to provide the present invention. The ship's hull (1) has the usual passenger accommodation (2) in the stern and (3) in the bow and can retain its engines in the stern (4). The first main bulkhead is indicated by reference numeral (5).

To provide the present invention the hull is divided up into compartments which, in the construction being described, are set out as decks A, B, C and D. Deck D occupies what would normally be the bilge and beneath which is the keel (6).

As will be seen from Figure 2, a row of compartments A, B, C, D extends from the upper deck (7) to the keel (6) and extend across the hull so that there is a set of compartments on each side and, in the present arrangement, between these separate compartments A, B, C, D there is an entry passage (8) at each level to allow access to the compartments A, B, C, and D. In a typical example the longitudinal length along the hull of each compartment A, B, C and D could be about 14 metres and transversely across the hull each compartment could be about 20 metres. The transverse width of the entry passages (8) can be about 11 metres thus providing a beam of about 51 metres.

The vertical height of each of the compartments A, B, C and D can be about 7 metres, although this can be altered as required for the particular construction and to provide necessary head height.

Figure 3 shows one set of compartments A, B, C and D and the outer wall of the hull is indicated by reference letter 0.

Compartment C houses a water driven turbine (9) of the kind shown in the Applicant's GB Patent Application No. 05 13903.5 filed on 5 July 2005 and which is shown in more detail in Figure 4.

The water driven turbine (11) is located in compartment (C) and four waste water tanks (10, 11, 12 and 13) together with compressed air tanks (14, 15, 16 and 17) located immediately above them are located in compartment D. The water turbine drives an electric generator (18) from which power is taken to operate an air compressor (19) both of which are located in compartment C. Compartment B provides an auxiliary space in which any required other components are located or which could contain another turbine (9) and generator (18) as indicated in chain lines.

The upper compartment A is used to house the generators from the wind generator apparatus which are provided on the upper deck (7). In Figure 3 the wind generators are indicated by reference numeral (20) and comprise a pillar construction on which is located a propeller of known type. The power generator by the wind apparatus is transmitted and converted into electricity by the wind generator (21). Wind driven generators of this type are well known in themselves and will not therefore be described further.

The upper deck (7) also houses a number of solar powered generators (22) from which the power is converted into electricity by generators (23) which are also located in compartment A. Tank scavenging pipes (24) also discharge from this compartment so that the water is discharged above the water level of the hull, which is indicated by reference numeral (25) in Figure 3.

Figure 4 shows the construction of the hydroelectric generating means in more detail.

The vertically mounted water driven turbine (9) actuates the electric generator (18) through appropriate drive gear including a gear box (26). The turbine (9) is housed in compartments Cwhich is located well beneath the water level (25). A water inlet duct (31) is provided which has an entry port (32) in the side of the ship 0.

A filter (33) extends over the inlet port (32).

The head of water above the turbine (9) is used to drive it and the waste water is discharged through manifold outlets (27, 28, 29 and 30) into the waste tanks (10, 11, 12 and 13) in compartment D. Tank scavenging means are provided for returning the waste water in the waste tanks (10, 11, 12 and 13) to above the level (25).

In order to scavenge the waste tanks (10, 11, 12, 13) scavenging means are provided in the form of compressed air tanks (14, 15, 16, 17) which are located immediately above the waste water tanks (10, 11, 12, 13). The compressed air is supplied to the tanks (14 to 17) by an air compressor (19) driven from the generator (18), as shown in Figure 3.

Pipe and valve gear (not shown) are provided to enable the compressed air to be delivered into the waste water tank immediately beneath it to cause the water to enter discharge pipes through entry (34) at its lower end. Air can be drawn into the tanks (10, 11, 12, 13) through air inlet ducts (35) which have control valves (not shown) at their lower ends.

A suitable valve gear (not shown) is provided so that compressed air can be selectively injected into any of the required tanks and simultaneously the air inlet ducts (35) can be connected appropriately to allow air out of one of the other tanks as waste water is allowed to enter.

In order to scavenge the tanks waste water from tanks, exit ducts (36) are provided in each waste tank. Thus waste water can be discharged by applying compressed air above the level of the water in each tank and ejecting it through the exit ducts (36) so that the upper end of the pipes discharge through the waste water exits (24) above the ship's waterline. Means could also be provided for controlling the operation of the turbine in accordance with the variations in the height of the head of water above the turbine and the water surface. If the ship is grounded on the sea bed or the bed of a tidal river the height of water will vary with the tide, thus altering the height of the head of water above the turbine. The control means can thus be used to adjust the operation of the turbine in these circumstances. The operation could be automatically controlled by suitable apparatus which determines the water level and alters the operation of the turbine appropriately.

Figure 6 is a plan view above one of the turbines and shows a hatch cover (50) beneath which and extending to the ship's side are the four water discharge pipes (32). The entrances to the inlet air pipe (35) are also shown.

In operation water is drawn into the turbine (9) through the inlet port (32) and into the pipe (31) and hence the turbine. Waste water from the turbine is initially delivered to one or other of the waste tanks (10, 11, 12 and 13) and as the tank approaches full capacity the control gears operate to direct the waste water to another tank, for example if tank (10) is filled initially then the second tank could be tank (12). The control gear also includes simple valves on the outlets so that when the first tank, for example tank (10), has been filled then the second tank, for example tank (12), is filling the scavenging means operate to force compressed air through a pipe (40), as shown in Figure 5, and into the appropriate tank to cause the water to discharge upwardly through the pipe (36). When all the water has been discharged and before the tank (10) is re-used the compressed air is allowed to escape through the appropriate exit pipe (35), thus readying the chamber for further use.

It will appreciated that the entire operation could be operated by automatic equipment, or, alternatively, it could be manually activated from a control room.

The electrical power developed by the generators can be carried ashore by any convenient cable means.

Although the turbine construction is thus described in co-pending GB Patent Application No. 0513903.5 any other kind of electro-hydraulic electric power generation equipment could be used.

Claims

Claims 1. A hydroelectric power station comprising a hydroelectric

generating apparatus provided in a ship's hull which can be floated to the required destination under its own power or be towed thereto, said hydroelectric generating apparatus including a water driven turbine which can be driven by a head of water above it, said turbine driving an electric generator and being located in said ship's hull at a position below the waterline thereof.

2. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claim 1 in which the ship's hull is provided by converting an existing ship.

3. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claim 2 in which the existing ship retains its original motive power engine or engines.

4. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claims 1 to 3 in which two or more water driven turbines are provided.

5. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claim 4 in which each water driven turbine is located in a separate compartment in the ship's hull.

6. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claims 1 to 5 in which wind driven electric generators are mounted on the upper deck or decks of the ship.

7. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claims 1 to 6 in which solar panels for electric generators are mounted on the upper deck or decks of the ship.

V

8. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in any one of claims 1 to 7 in which each hydroelectric generating apparatus comprises a water driven turbine which actuates an electric generator below the water level and includes means for gathering the waste water from the turbine in a tank and provides scavenging means for returning said waste water to above the level of the source of water used to drive the turbine.

9. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claim 8 in wich the scavenging means are driven directly or indirectly from the turbine or generator.

10. A hydroelectric power station as claimed in claim 8 or 9 in which the ship's hull provides a structure, at least part of which includes the water powered turbine which actuates the electric generator, a water inlet duct extending from a water entry manifold to said turbine and two or more waste tanks to receive the waste water from the turbine which can be selectively operated.