JPH06341371A - Temperature change power generator - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To drive a small-sized apparatus without external supply of energy by converting the mechanical energy from an expansion part of a sealed vessel into electric energy with a pressure change of a high pressure substance associate with temp. change. CONSTITUTION:A vessel 2 formed with bellows 1 is filled with a high pressure substance, for example ammonia, in which liquid and gas coexist. The bellows 1 are elongated by raising the vapor pressure of the ammonia in association with the rise of the gas temp., and a movable lever 4 coupled by a pin with the upper part of the vessel 2 is elevated. With a rack 11 of movable bar 4, a rotor 14 is rotated through a pinion 12 and an accelerating gear 13, and an AC voltage is induced in a coil 16. AC voltage is supplied from a rectifier 17 to a capacitor 18, and charging is made as a DC voltage. At this time, an actuator 8 is controlled by a control circuit 10 connected with a thermal sensor 9, and the rise and fall of the movable bar 4 is controlled through detention of a pin 8a with a part with surface unevenness 11.

Description

Detailed Description of the Invention

[0001]

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION 1. Field of the Invention The present invention relates to a generator for generating electric power using natural energy, and more particularly to a structure of a type generator utilizing temperature change.

[0002]

2. Description of the Related Art Energy changes from changes in temperature with conventional technology.
For example, there is a table clock Atmos manufactured by Jaeger-LeCoultre Co., Ltd. The Atmos principle is that the mixture of liquid and gas, which is sealed in an expandable container inside the aircraft, expands and contracts due to changes in the ambient temperature, winding up and loosening the chain to power the clock. Wind up the mainspring which is. The energy of the mainspring moves the needle through the escapement.

[0003]

However, the above-mentioned conventional method has no power generation mechanism because it is a mechanical timepiece.
There has been a marked tendency toward computerization in all fields from before, and almost all quartz parts are used in watches, and so are other fields such as cameras. In addition to these, there are many small devices that use batteries. Batteries have problems of troublesome replacement and pollution caused by discarding used batteries.

In order to solve these problems, an object of the present invention is to provide a generator capable of driving a small device which conventionally uses a battery without the battery.

[0005]

In order to achieve the above object, the generator of the present invention comprises a sealed container having an expandable part and a high-pressure substance in which liquid and gas coexist in the container. A generating means for generating mechanical energy from an expandable portion of a sealed container by a pressure change due to a temperature change of a high-pressure substance, the conversion for converting mechanical energy into electric energy. It is characterized by having means.

[0006]

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS The construction of a temperature change generator according to an embodiment of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. FIG. 1 is a side view showing a generator for easy understanding of a first embodiment of the present invention.

As shown in FIG. 1, a sealed container 2 is composed of a bellows 1 whose side surface can be expanded and contracted, and a high-pressure substance in which a liquid and a gas coexist, such as ammonia or carbon dioxide, is stored under high pressure. It is full.

At the upper part of the container 2, via a connecting pin 3,
The movable bar-4 is supported by a bearing 5, and a return spring 6 is provided above the movable bar 4 to push the movable bar-4 downward.

There is an uneven portion 7 on the left side of the movable bar-4, and the uneven portion 7 meshes with the pin 8a of the actuator 8. A temperature sensor 9 is adhered to the upper portion of the container 2 and connected to the control circuit 10, and its output is connected to the actuator 8.

On the other hand, there is a rack 11 on the right side of the movable bar 4, which is meshed with the pinion 12 and is magnetized to the magnetic poles N and S via the speed increasing gear 13. -It also meshes with the turret 14.

The rotor 14 constitutes an AC generator together with the stator 15 and the coil 16.

The output of the coil 16 is connected to the rectifier 17, and the capacitor-18 is connected to the rectifier 17.

When ammonia is used as the high-pressure substance, its vapor pressure is about 4 atm at a temperature of 0 ° C., about 8 atm at 20 ° C., and 40 ° C.
It is about 15 atm.

Therefore, when the temperature is between 0 ° C. and 40 ° C., there is a pressure change of about 1 atm or more per 5 ° C. This value is about 1 kg / cm @ 2, which is strong.

If the temperature of ammonia is set to 0 ° C. for the sake of simplicity, the vapor pressure is as low as 4 atm, and the movable bar
Is pushed by the return spring 6 and is in the lower position.

Assuming that the temperature of ammonia rises to 20 ° C. due to the rise in temperature, the vapor pressure of ammonia rises to 8 atm, the bellows 1 extends, and the movable bar-4 is pushed upward through the connecting pin 3.

Then, the rotor 14 is rotated through the rack 11, the pinion 12, and the speed increasing gear 13, and an AC voltage is induced in the coil 16. Then, this AC voltage is charged into the capacitor 18 by the DC voltage via the rectifier 17. The electric power charged in the capacitor-18 can be used as the electric power for the small device.

As is apparent from FIG. 1, when the temperature drops, the operation is reversed and the rotor 14 reverses, but since it is an AC generator, the charging of the capacitor 18 is
Exactly the same as above.

Here, a rotary AC generator is taken as an example of the generator, but of course vibration of a conductor in a magnetic field may be used, or electric power generated by deformation of a piezoelectric element may be used.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the saturated vapor pressure of ammonia as a high-pressure substance, where the horizontal axis represents temperature and the vertical axis represents pressure.

As described above, in general, substances other than ammonia can be expressed as a simple increasing function by a downward convex curve.

A substance having a high absolute value of the saturated vapor pressure at a certain temperature has a large temperature dependency of the saturated vapor pressure. Therefore, although a large amount of mechanical energy can be taken out, the structure must be strong due to the high pressure.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing power generation efficiency. The horizontal axis represents the pressure of saturated vapor of the high-pressure substance filling the container 2, and the vertical axis represents the volume of the container 2, that is, the volume of the high-pressure substance.

Here, the inclination of the dotted line in FIG. 3 is related to the combined spring constant of the bellows 1 and the return spring 6 of the container 2. Now, the temperature of the high-pressure substance changes, and the pressure changes from P1 to P2.
It has changed to. Meanwhile, the expansion of the bellows 1 of the container 2 is mechanically fixed, and the volume of the high-pressure substance is kept at V1.

When the pressure at P2 is reached and the container 2 is unfixed, the volume of the high-pressure substance becomes V2. The mechanical energy emitted by the container 2 at this time is the area of the triangle ABC.

Similarly, when the temperature of the high-pressure substance rises and the pressure reaches P3 and P4, energy is released,
The energies of the triangle CDE and the triangle EFG are emitted, respectively.

Next, when the temperature of the high-pressure substance is lowered and the pressure is changed from P4 to P3, P2, and P1, each energy is released, and the released energy is the area of triangle EGH, triangle CEI, and triangle ACJ. Is.

Therefore, the sum of the released energy when the pressure is increased and the pressure is decreased from P1 to P4 is the square A
It is the sum of the areas of BCJ, square CDEI, and square EFGH.

On the other hand, with respect to the temperature change of the high-pressure substance, the expansion and contraction of the container 2 is fixed from the pressures P1 to P4 without discharging the energy in small amounts, and when the energy is discharged at one time, the pressure rises and falls. On the other hand, the emitted energy has an area of a square AKGL.

As described above, for the same pressure change, it is possible to take out more energy by releasing the energy at once rather than releasing it in small amounts.

FIG. 4 is a more accurate graph of a part of FIG. A curve M indicates a state in which when the bellows 1 expands, the saturated vapor of the high-pressure substance temporarily lowers in temperature due to adiabatic expansion, and thus the pressure decreases.
A curve N indicates a state in which the pressure of the high-pressure substance is temporarily increased due to adiabatic compression when the bellows 1 is compressed, and thus the pressure is increased.

The temperature change of the high-pressure substance is due to the change of the outside air temperature, and it is difficult to predict the temperature change range in advance. Therefore, if the pressure change range is set too large so as to release energy at one time, and the change in the outside air temperature folds back before that, energy cannot be extracted at all.

In FIG. 5, the horizontal axis represents time, and the vertical axis represents temperature sensor 9.
Shows the temperature of. Generally, the temperature changes slowly,
The temperature of the temperature sensor 9 is almost the same as the temperature of the high pressure substance.

Now, after passing through any of the turning points X, Y, Z of the temperature change, and a little more time passes, the temperature of the temperature sensor 9 reverses its rising or falling direction. At that point, the control circuit 10 determines that the temperature is at the turning point, moves the pin 8a of the actuator 8 to the left by the signal, and unlocks the movable bar 4 to release the bellows 1.
Begins to expand and contract.

At the end of expansion and contraction, the pin 8a is moved to the right,
Lock the movable bar again. By doing this,
Power generation is always possible with almost the maximum range of temperature change, and an efficient temperature change generator can be provided.

If ammonia is used as the high-pressure substance, the temperature will be 80
The pressure becomes 41 atm in temperature, and the pressure resistance of the container 2 is a problem. Therefore, the amount of ammonia to be enclosed is adjusted so that it is completely gas at 40 ° C. By doing so 40 ° C
With the above, the gas simply expands and the pressure does not rise so much.

Even if the high-pressure substance is ammonia, the volume of the container 2 is increased, and as a result, the area of the upper surface of the container 2 and the movable bar-4 are increased.
If the stroke of is increased, a large amount of energy can be taken out.

However, when the size of the generator is limited, carbon dioxide may be used as the high-pressure substance. The saturated vapor pressure of carbon dioxide is about 34 atm at 0 ° C and about 57 at 20 ° C. However, the critical temperature is 31 ° C, and the critical pressure at that time is as high as about 73 atm. Therefore, when carbon dioxide is used, the pressure resistance of the container 2 is required, and it is necessary to regulate the amount so that the container 2 is all gas at the critical temperature.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a generator for easy understanding of the second embodiment of the present invention.

A movable bar-4 is supported on the upper part of the container 2 by a bearing 5 via a compression spring 21, and a return spring 6 is provided on the upper part of the movable bar 4 to lower the movable bar-4. Pushing to.

There is an uneven portion 7 on the left side of the movable bar-4, and this uneven portion 7 meshes with the leaf spring 22. The other conversion means for converting mechanical energy into electric energy is the same as in the first embodiment.

If the temperature rises gently now, the movable bar-4 will try to rise gently, but the movement of the movable bar-4 is regulated by the engagement of the uneven portion 7 and the leaf spring 22, and the compression spring is compressed. 21 compresses. When the movable bar-4 further tries to rise, the engagement between the uneven portion 7 and the leaf spring 22 is disengaged, and the movable bar-4 is rapidly raised by the compression spring 21. Thus, the movement of the movable bar-4 is made intermittent.

In the second embodiment, compared with the first embodiment, the mechanical energy of the generating means is reduced, but the temperature sensor, the control circuit and the actuator are unnecessary, and a simple leaf spring is sufficient, and the structure is simple. is there.

The temperature change generator can be applied to a small device using a battery such as a watch, a camera, a mobile phone and the like.

[0045]

As is apparent from the above description, the temperature change generator according to the present invention is capable of generating electricity by utilizing temperature change existing in nature without positively supplying energy from the outside. , Out of the small devices that use batteries,
It can be used for small devices that can be driven with relatively small power. As a result, no battery is required, and there is an effect of being able to drive a small-sized device without pollution and almost permanently.

[Brief description of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a side view showing a generator according to a first embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a graph showing the temperature dependence of the saturated vapor pressure of ammonia.

FIG. 3 is a graph showing mechanical energy generated by pressure and volume change of a high-pressure substance.

FIG. 4 is a graph showing mechanical energy generated by pressure and volume change of a high-pressure substance.

FIG. 5 is a graph showing a turning point of temperature change.

FIG. 6 is a side view showing a power generator according to a second embodiment of the present invention.

[Explanation of symbols]

 2 container 4 movable bar 7 uneven part 8 actuator 9 temperature sensor 12 rotor 21 compression spring 22 leaf spring

Claims (5)

[Claims] 1. A closed container having a stretchable portion, and a high-pressure substance in which a liquid and a gas coexist in the container,
Generating means for generating mechanical energy from an expandable part of a container sealed by a pressure change due to a temperature change of a high-pressure substance, which has a converting means for converting mechanical energy into electrical energy. A temperature change generator characterized in that 2. The temperature change generator according to claim 1, wherein the generating means has a means for fixing the expansion and contraction up to the turning point of the temperature change and releasing the expansion and contraction near the turning point of the temperature change. 3. The temperature change generator according to claim 1, wherein the generating means converts the mechanical energy into intermittent mechanical energy by the intermittent means. 4. The temperature change generator according to claim 1, wherein the amount of the high-pressure substance is such that it becomes a gas at a certain temperature or higher. 5. The temperature change generator according to claim 1, wherein the high-pressure substance is ammonia or carbon dioxide.