WO2008052809A1

WO2008052809A1 - Anti greenhouse energy

Info

Publication number: WO2008052809A1
Application number: PCT/EP2007/009665
Authority: WO
Inventors: Erwin Johan Croughs
Original assignee: Erwin Johan Croughs
Priority date: 2006-11-03
Filing date: 2007-11-02
Publication date: 2008-05-08

Abstract

A system that uses off-peak or sustainable energy and clears the atmosphere by storing energy potential in compressed liquid air and heat from its compression cycle which are used to generate effective work. Liquid air is pressured, absorbes energy from gas in closed circuit at temperatures that allow the gas to condense, to then be pressured and take energy out of a warmer medium, so that both gasses can expand and produce effective work using the compression heat. The cycle of condensation, pressuring, heating and production of work can be repeated between the gas and another gas in closed circuit, thus creating additional work. The liquid air can also be substituted by a gas and the closed circuit can be substituted by ambient air. O2 can be separated from liquid air for oxyfuel processes and the low temperatures can be used for condensation of CO2 and storage of potential energy. H2O, N2, Ar and Liquid CO2 are valuable side products.

Description

Anti Greenhouse Energy

Field of invention

Our oceans only need a few degrees of temperature rise to cause a string of ecological catastrophes and our air already kills us by the thousands and counting. Pollution has increased many times over whereas fossil reserves are dwindling ever faster. Without reversal of this process, the price tag of worldwide dike fortifications, by drought or floods devastated living and agricultural area's, elderly and infant deaths, forest fires, extinct animals, lung diseases, mass evacuations and aid to disaster area's, will be too high and still we don't even talk about suffocation by atmosphere, global dimming, stopping of the conveyer belt or the melting of the methane that now still is frozen on the ocean beds. Even if tomorrow we start clearing and cooling down the atmosphere, we're going to (keep) spending a lot of money to battling the effects of global warming and pollution and still it is the question if we ever reach the needed order of magnitude. Fossil fuels are being thrown in the air on a grand scale, we see the north pole melt, earth being smothered, the ozone layer disintegrate, oil wars that give the world hate, death, agony and terrorism. Every day anew our addiction grows to our ever faster declining fossil treasures. Because of the ever increasing amount of cars on the market, fuel usage will increase the following years and then again double due to extra traffic jams. High electricity peak demand will also increase along with the worlds population en industry will have to produce more (as long as they can) to compete in the economy. Transport of oil, gas, electricity and fuel alone will cost billions extra. During the past century half of our fossil supply, build up in many millions of years of evolution was burnt and air pollution has multiplied many times over, already killing thousands a year. Emission of greenhouse gasses up till 1990 has given us the need to raise our water protection works and as a solution for the problem the world wants to go back to that very level! Unfortunately no prior art has been found for systems that tried to handle this but still we examined works that headed in that direction. With this in mind an energy system is attempted that, using ice cold gas as agent in generation, storage and use, not only tries to minimize energy consumption and pollution but also moves us into the sustainable resources and in the process clears the atmosphere. Lots of work has been done in the past year and quite some Dutch patents have been registered. This is a compilation of recent prior patents upon which present application is based. Discussion of prior art

For a solution we knew we had to answer back with the exact opposite of the continuously ongoing burning process; a "negative" energy or "cool down" process. To sustain this process we looked to the sun and deep down in the earth. Even though in investigated patents not much is found about energy systems that reverse the greenhouse effects, earlier patents have tried to generate sustainable energy and reduce the problem of emission by electric cars but those can take little power on board and electricity comes from fossil fuels without efforts of clearing the air and the problem of storing larger quantities is not really solved. CAES (US5537822) is a first step in the right direction of storing energy but still needs fossil fuels and only takes care of distribution of electricity and at large efficiency costs, thus not yet providing a workable sustainable solution. Except hydropower other patents don't really provide green storage in big quantities nor sustainable storage facilities for vehicles. Cars have great greenhouse gas emission and need great attention. Hybrid patents are promising and are a step closer but still fuel usage is high and again no efforts to cool and clear the atmosphere. Prius does really good with 1 :22 but that is not nearly what we need. WO 0071375 comes close but has no electro motors in the wheels making the net results somewhat low. Also it has no heating of expanded air and again new expansion causing quite some energy to be lost, making the system not really energy effective. Actually the only car that emits air cleaner and cooler than it consumes and thus offers an opportunity to reverse the global warming is the MDI with FR 2769949 and subsequent patents using and a start has been made. Using crankshaft, differentials, gearbox, cylinders, transmission, clutch, etc, it still has a lot of friction and weight and thus energy losses. Apart from the motor not optimally being used, it has no constant rpm as is the case with a turbine driven generator. It's not very obvious to think of solar-energy because it's diffuse and continuity can't be guaranteed which is true but in combination with cold air it's able to up the pressure and becomes an option. An MDI motor can't be converted into a continuous rpm engine and will have gears, drive train, heat and friction loss, etc. However, as a solution, MDI has installed a fuel engine that supplies the energy for higher speeds and pumps up air for zero emission during city use. The ecological disadvantage is that no use is made of free solar energy, emission exhaust enters the atmosphere and there is good but no optimum efficiency, however, as a net result it clears more air than it pollutes and through zero emission in urban area's, cities are being cleaned up. Present invention

AGE is short for Anti Greenhouse Energy and the definition of AGE Technology© is: "Application of technology pertaining to generation, storage and conversion of energy in a way so as to reverse the greenhouse effect ". It can further be defined: "Storage and conversion of sustainable energy for production of effective work, using cold or liquid gas while clearing the atmosphere and fossil power generation". The efficiency and environmental advantages of the MDI gave a good clue as to how effective cleaning, cooling and storage of large quantities of energy could be accomplished and became a basic of Anti Greenhouse Energy. In (1032811) the storage of electricity was done by compressing air of which the compression heat was seperated and stored as well. Upon retrieval of the stored electricity, ambient heat as well as the stored compressed heat were added to the expanding air. Also low expansion temperatures were used for condensing a closed circuit which could extract additional energy from the environment, hi (1033323) the amount of heat that could be converted into electricity by f.i. one liter of cold air or nitrogen was increased by running it several times through the heat source, each time decreasing the pressure considerably. Due to the expansion great temperature drops were accomplished, making the air cold each time, enabling it to convert more heat into electricity. This was a good way of storing power for vehicles as the cooling by expansion was enhanced by running the expanded gas through the initial cold or liquid gas. This compensated the extreme low storage temperatures and enabled the gas to extract more low grade heat from the environment. By expanding it several times additional low expansion temperatures could be added to the stored ice cold gas. Of course not only vehicles but also powerplants benefit from this mechanism and not only low grade heat but also waste heat and stored high grade heat of compression could be added for additional power. The system could not only store energy and return it later but could run continously as well. Waste heat could be fed to the compressor, making for higher temperatures, hi (1033364) the problem of storing high grade energy in a vehicle was solved by a high pressure vessel containing supercritical steam. The steam could be used for expansion of cold gas while condensing to water what would release a lot of energy. Also the very hot container would be placed inside a warm container so that heat losses are reduced and collected in a low grade heat vessel which would serve a seperate circuit. In (1033554) the low temperatures of expansion were used for taking water out of the air and thus increasing compression efficiency. Here too the compression heat was stored and added to the expansion cycle. An additional closed gas circuit was added to be condensed by the evaporating liquid air. This way the amount of gas that could extract heat from environment and other sources was increased. The oxygen would be combined with a fuel to deliver work and concentrated heat which then would also enhance the expansion. An interesting feature was added to allow the CO2 from combustion to be condensed by cold or liquid gas generated from the liquefaction process used to seperate oxygen for combustion. The cold gas would in turn use the energy of the condensing CO2 to heat up before expansion. In this way the CO2 became liquid and easy to handle for sale or injection in empty oil or gasfields while its energy was converted into work. Here too the cycle could run continuously and work as a generator, extracting heat from environment and thus reversing global warming. In (1033752) an effort was made to increase efficiency by pumping the liquid nitrogen and oxygen to very high pressures, even reaching above 100 bar. In this way more expansion cycles could be obtained with greater pressure drops, creating greater temperature drops and thus enabling more heat to be converted into electricity. This was also combined with the burning of fuel and oxygen from which CO2 would generate that could be condensed by a buffer containing low temperatures because it had given its energy to one of the cold gasses. Patent (1033966) attempted to increase the volume of compressed air to up the amount of liquid air produced in a liquefaction proces. Liquid air would heat up by extracting energy from a buffer that cools down. When new compressed air would enter the buffer it'd lose its energy quickly to the buffer, thus increasing the flow and volume of newly compressed air. So in stead of dumping lots of low temperatures into the environment, the cold was stored for the next compression cycle. It also added the possibility that CO2 was condensed directly or by a closed circuit which would use the low temperatures for additional expansion and work. It also added the possibility for using the low temperatures for cool and deepfreeze facilities. Using pure oxygen for burning gives high temperatures and so the steam circuit is very concentrated. To cool the steam an ethane expansion circuit that condenses at -150 C is used. Condensation/evaporation took place anywhere between the extreme temperatures. The new feature here was that because of the strongly concentrated high temperatures a relatively small amount of ethane needed to be condensed and thus no waste heat would need to be dumped in the environment. In this way the oil industry can produce zero emission electricity and peak storage and use economical EOR which makes a new financial lever to accelerate investments and speed up evolution into a sustainable future. To even increase the possibility for sustainable development the compression cycle was minimized in (1033814). The liquid gas that evaporates condenses another gas which after pressurizing would evaporate and condense another gas which would condense another one, etc. This way multiple heating and expansion cycles become possible and lots of low grade heat can be used for electricity generation. In (1034024) the cold of LNG was put to use for liquefaction of air and separation of 02 for oxfuel processes. This is a practical way as more and more LNG import is expected.

Description of present invention

During off hours (figl) air is compressed(l) and stored(2) while hot compression energy is stored at different temperatures(3). During peak hours compressed air is partly expanded to drive expansion machine(4) that provides electricity to the grid(10). The low expansion temperatures are stored(5) for cooling. Then air is heated by solar collectors(ό) and/or via pipes(8) by soil(9) and/or by stored heat(3) after which it expands to ambient pressure via expansion macbine(7) that supplies electricity to the grid.

The low expansion temperatures, low grade heat and compression heat can also be used in closed circuits(fig2). During off hours air(l) is taken in by compressor(2). The air is preheated by low grade heat in heat exchanger(3). During compression lots of heat is generated and stored at different temperatures in storage vessels(4,5). Compressed air is stored in high pressure vessel(6). During peak hours this air powers expansion machine(7) that feeds the grid. Due to the pressure drop the air becomes very cold but it takes energy from heat exchanger(8) and from low grade heat(9) that could be riverwater or waste heat from a motor or plant. Then the air is then expanded to ambient pressure while powering expansion machine(lθ) that also feeds the grid. Cold liquid CO2 or other cooling agent is pumped(l 1) through heat exchangers (12,13,14) where it collects energy to pump(15) that brings it to even higher pressure. Then it's heated by low grade heat(16) and then by stored compression heat(4,5). The now energy rich agent expands and powers expansion machine(17) that feeds the grid as well. The now gasous low pressure agent is led back(l 8) to the cold heat exchanger(8) where it condenses so as to be pumped(l 1) back into the circuit again. In seperate closed circuits other liquid agents like freon or propane with different boiling and condensation temperatures are being pumped(19) through heatexchangers(20) where they collect energy from river and waste heat, evaporate and power expansion machines(21) that also feed the grid. Gasuous agents condense in heat exchangers(12,13,14) and are pumped(19) round again. hi reversed compression (fig3) air(l) is taken in and compressed(2), cooled and stored as cold gas(3) and cold liquid(4) while the compression heat(5) is stored in vessel(l 1). When power is needed cold nitrogen or air(6) enters heat exchanger(7), take low grade energy from the environment^), takes more energy from exchanger(9), takes up energy from storage(l 1), expands(lθ), cools down(9), cools further down(7) and repeats the cycle 2 more times until it exits the last expander(12) at ambient pressure to be released into the atmosphere(13).

The energy could be stored in a battery(fig4) where a liquid agent that is pumped(l) through a heat exchanger(2) where is evaporates after which it enters a storage vessel(3) with supercritical steam. It then enters heat exchanger(4) and powers expansion machine(5). After that it cools in heat exchanger(6) and condenser(7). After that it heats up again in(6) and (4) to expand in(8). This cycle can be repeated several times over until the pressure is gone and the agent comes back in heat exchanger(2) where it condenses. It then comes through storage vessel(9) to be pumped(l) round again. The steam in vessel(3) can be electrically(10) heated or removed and refilled through valves(l 1,12). To combine storage of energy with CO2 capture(fϊg5) air(l) is cooled in cold storage(2), compressed(3), cooled in heat storage(4), expanded in expansion machine(5) and stored in the form of liquid N2(6), 02(7) and CO2(8). Compression heat is stored at different temperatures in vessels(9,4). During peak hours LN2 is evaporated by a closed ethane circuit and heated to expand(lθ) to deliver peak power to the grid. The low expansion temperatures are stored(2) through a freon circuit(l 1) for cooling during off hours. Ambient and waste heat are given(12) to the freon to generate extra electricity. The N2 is preheated in heat exchanger(13) to gain heat from the freon circuit(l 1) and will become hotter in heat exchanger(14) and reach highest temperatures in(9) to then expand in(10). This cycle can be repeated two times and at the end the N2 will leave the system(15) at ambient temperature and pressure. Liquid ethane is pumped(16) through heat exchanger(17) so that it gains energy. In(18) it takes heat from the CO2 out of the oxyfuel expander(23) which will condense and be pumped away in liquid form(19). The ethane then takes up energy in heat storage(4) and expands(20) to cool down in (17) and condense in(6) where it gives off condensation heat to the evaporating LN2. Once liquid it can be pumped through again in(16). In oxyfuel burner(21) 02(7) and gas(22) generate high peak power in(23) with waste products H2O, CO2 and heat. The water is dumped or sold and the CO2 gives energy(18) to ethane so that it condenses to exit in liquid form(19). Another part of the heat(24) is delivered to heat exchanger( 12) to ad energy to the closed freon circuit. The N2 or 02 can be pumped to high pressure (figβ) to increase power output when air(l) is cooled and water is taken out in storage(2) after which it's warmed to ambient temperatures(3), compressed(4), cooled in heat storage(5), expanded in expansion machine(6), stripped of CO2(7), compressed(8), cooled in cold liquid CO2(9) and cooled down further in cold storage(lθ). It then expands(l 1) and is seperated (12) in different liquid gasses that are expelled(13) or stored at low temperature and pressure like 02(14) and N2(15). During peak hours the N2 is pumped to very high pressure and evaporates (17) by condensing ethane. The cold high pressured N2 is heated in heat exchanger(18), heated further by condensing freon in (19), brought to ambient temperature in(20), heated by low grade heat from buffer(21) and expanded(22). This cycle is repaeted a couple of times until the pressure is gone and then it exits at ambient temperature and pressure into the atmosphere(23). During peak hours a steam circuit makes electricity(24) from compression energy in heat storage(5). The waste heat in buffer(21) is given to expanding N2 and freon so that the steam can condense to be pumped(25) round again. Energy rich freon expands(26), condenses(19), is pumped(27) and cools cold storage(2) where it's heated after which it heats up further to ambient temperatures(3) and further with low grade wasteheat(21) after which it expands again in(26). Ethane is condensed(17) and pumped(28) to high pressure, preheated in cold storage(lθ), heated in buffer(29), evaporated(30) at ambient temperatures, heated by waste heat(31) after which it expands(32) to be condensed in(17). Oxygen from storage(14) is pumρed(33) to high pressure, evaporated in cold storage(lθ), heated in buffer(29), heated by ambient temperatures(30), heated further by waste heat(31) to expand in(34). The condense/pump/heat/expand cycle can be repeated until proper pressure and temperature are reached to burn(35) a fuel or gas(36) to make electricity, water(37), CO2(38) and waste heat(39). The CO2 heats buffer(29) where it condenses at -50 C and is pumped(40) at low pressure in storage(9). During off hours it heats up by the compressed air and gains pressure, then it can be transported(41) liquid at ambient temperatures. Low grade heat can be converted to electricity directly(fig7) where liquid nitrogen(l) is pumped(2) to high pressure and evaporated in heatexhanger(3), heated to ambient temperatures by water(4) to expand in(5). Then it'll be very cold at low pressure and after expansion valve(6) it'll be partly liquid to be fully condensed by a Siemens cycle(7) and pumped(2) around again. In heatexchanger(3) 02(8) condenses by giving heat to the liquid nitrogen. Then the oxygen is pumped(9) through heat exchanger(10) where it evaporates to heat up to ambient temperatures by water(4) to expand(l 1) and enter heat exchanger(3). Methane(12) condenses in heat exchanger(10) by giving heat to evaporating 02. Then it's pumped(13) in heat exchanger(14) where it evaporates and into(4) to then expand in (15). Freon(16) is condensed(14), pumped(17), heated(4) and expands(18). After methane(12) evaporates(14) it's heated further in heat exchanger(19) that condenses another freon circuit(20) that is pumped(21) into (4) where it evaporatres to expand(22).

There are more ways to produce and use the cold (fig8). During off hours air(l) is cooled in buffer(2) where watervapor is extracted. Then it's heated by ambient heat(3), waste heat(4) and heat exchanger(5). Then it's compressed(6), cooled in high grade heat storage(7), heat exchangers(5, 8) that store waste heat in (4). In circuits(9,10) air is pressured the same way and the heat is also stored the same way. Air is then cooled in heat exchager(l 1) by waste flow(12), cooled further by cold storage(13) and heat exchanger(14) after which it expands(15) and becomes liquid(16) to be seperated in Ar(17), N2(18) and O2(19). During peak hours N2 is pumped(20) to high pressure and evaporates in cold storage(13). The cold high pressure N2 is heated in heat exchanger(21), further heated by condensing freon(22), deepfreeze storage(23) and by waste heat(4) to then expand(24). This cycle can be repeated a couple of times until N2 exits at ambient pressure and temperature into the atmosphere(25). The compression heat in storage(7) is converted by steam(26) into electricity(27). The steam then condenses at low pressure in heat exchanger(28) after which it can be pumped(29) around again. In heat exchanger(22) freon condenses to be pumped(30) to be heated in cold storage(2), by ambient heat(3) and waste heat(4). It then expands(31) and condenses again in heat exchanger(22). Oxygen is pumped(32) to very high pressure, evaporates in cold storage(13), preheated(33,34) and heated(35) further by waste heat from oxyfuel(41). It then expands(36) and the expansion cycle can be repeated until desired pressure for injection in oxyfuel plant(37) to generate electricity by burning fuel(38). H2O(40) and waste heat(41) are separated(39), 02 and CO2(42) are cooled by heat exchanger(43). CO2 is condensed in heat exchanger(44). Excess O2 is redirected(45) to the plant(37) for reiηjection. Condensed CO2 is pressured(46), heated in heat exchanger(43) to ambient temperatures to exit(47) the system. Ethane condensed in storage(13) is also pressured(48), heated by CO2(44), waste heat(49) and condensed steam in heat exchanger(28) to expand(50) and condenses in(13) again.

The same energy savings could be accomplished by LNG(fig9). The stored LNG(I) is pumped(2) to high pressure and evaporated in heat exchanger(3). Air is cooled(4) for removal of water vapor and pressured(5) and becomes warm. The gas is heated further in heat exchanger(22) and expands(6) and enters at lower pressure into oxyfuel burner(7). Air compressed in(5) cools down and condenses by the cold gas in heatexchanger(3) and is stored as liquid 02(8) and N2(9). Liquid 02 is pumped(10) at high pressure(lθ) and is heated in heat exchanger(l 1) by CO2(12). The CO2 condenses and exits the system liquid(13). Energy rich 02 can expand(14) and burn(7) gas to make electricity. The exhaust(15) contains only CO2 and H2O which are seperated and H2O is discarded(16). N2 is pumped(17) and heated by ambient heat(18) and waste heat(19) after which it expands(20) and generates power. Waste heat(21) can also be provided to the gas(22) before expansion and possibly to 02 after heating(l 1).

Claims

Claims:

1) An energy system containing generators, heat exchangers, gasses, condensers, compressors, heat and cold storage, expanders, electricity distribution facilities, agents with very low boiling point like air, nitrogen, carbondioxide, methane, etc, comprising energy potential stored in a form of compressed liquid air and heat from its compression cycle which are used to generate effective work in such a way that at least a part of the liquid air is pressured, absorbes energy from at least one gas in closed circuit, at least partly at temperatures that allow the gas to condense and be pressured and take energy out of a warmer medium so that both can evaporate, expand and produce effective work while using at least part of said heat.

2) A system according to claim 1, wherein the cycle of condensation, pressuring, heating, expansion and production of work is repeated between said gas and a gas in closed circuit. 3) A system according to claim 2, wherein said repeated cycle is repeated.

4) A system according to claim 1 , wherein said air condenses after expansion and circulates in a closed circuit.

5) A system according to claim 1 , wherein the form of liquid air is substituted by a gas like LNG. 6) A system according to claim 1 , wherein the gas in closed circuit is substituted by ambient air, not in closed circuit, from which 02 is separated after condensation.

7) A system according to claim 1, wherein said air doesn't take energy from a gas in closed circuit.

8) A system according to claim 1 , wherein the gas in closed circuit is at least partly substituted by a gas in a storage vessel.

9) A system according to claim 1 , wherein at least one gas doesn't produce effective work by expansion after evaporation.

10) A system according to claim 1, wherein O2 is separated from the cold liquid air and used for direct combustion processes like oxyfuel. H) A system according to claim 1 , wherein said compression heat is not used.

12) A system according to claim 1, wherein said compression heat is not stored.

13) A system according to claim 1, wherein at least one pressured gas absorbes waste heat before expansion and production of effective work. 14) A system according to claim 1, wherein at least one gas doesn't take energy from another gas.

15) A system according to claim 10, wherein at least part of said low temperatures are used for condensation of at least part of the CO2 from combustion.

16) A system according to claim 15, wherein the combustion exhaust pressure of CO2 is sufficient for liquefaction of at least part of said CO2 .

17) A system according to claim 15, wherein at least part of the low gas temperatures used for condensation of CO2 are produced during off-peak hours. 18) A system according to claim 1, wherein at least part of the compression energy is produced during off-peak hours.

19) A system according to claim 1, wherein waste heat from a gas flow that has produced work by expansion, is given to its returning flow that has cooled down. The returning flow, now getting energy can produce additional work. 20) A system according to claim 1, wherein at least part of the production of effective work is done at the same time as the air compression cycle.

2I) A system according to claim 1, wherein high storage temperatures are obtained by mostly adiabatic compression.

22) A system according to claim 1 , wherein air is liquefied, purified, pressured, heated and expanded, to exit the system dry and clean, thus cleaning the atmosphere.

23) A system according to claim 1, wherein it's build in a mode of transportation which is powered by it.

24) A system according to claim 1, wherein water from the exhaust of the oxyfuel processes is used for industrial purposes. 25) A system according to claim 1, wherein an electric power plant is equipped with such a system. 26) A system according to claim 1 , wherein the cold liquid gas is pumped to medium pressure to then absorb energy while remaining liquid to then be pumped to higher pressure and take in more energy. 27) A system according to claim 1, wherein the liquid gas is pumped to supercritical pressure.

28) A system according to claim 1, wherein said air runs in a closed circuit.

29) Circuits, machinery and means to run any system or combination of systems according to at least one of above claims.