WO2016105309A1

WO2016105309A1 - Solar power unit having spraying mechanism

Info

Publication number: WO2016105309A1
Application number: PCT/TR2015/050028
Authority: WO
Inventors: Fikret GÜLOĞLU
Original assignee: Güloğlu Fikret
Priority date: 2014-12-23
Filing date: 2015-07-10
Publication date: 2016-06-30

Abstract

The present invention relates to a solar power unit consisting of vertical-axis power tower, mirrors positioned around said power tower in appropriate angles and reflecting the beams received from sun, evaporation chamber that collects the beams received from said mirrors by means of transparent material and is a closed structure, collector provided in said evaporation chamber and collecting the sun beams received from the mirrors, heat-conveying liquid changing into vapor phase by means of said collector, feeding system transferring said liquid to the collector, spraying mechanism that sprays the liquid received from feeding system onto the heating surface of said collector in the form of particles, turbine transforming the heat of said vapor into mechanic action, transfer line transferring the liquid changing into vapor phase to the turbine, and generator transforming the mechanic action generated in said turbine into the electric energy.

Description

SOLAR POWER UNIT HAVING SPRAYING MECHANISM TECHNICAL FIELD

The present invention relates to the systems generating electricity by means of solar power unit.

The present invention especially relates to solar systems which generate vapor by means of solar energy and which transform the heat of said vapor into electric energy.

STATE OF ART

Thanks to the fact that the technological developments arise in parallel with the rapid increase in the world population, the need for all kinds of energy such as electricity and fuel required for performing manufacture processes, transportation, shipping, lighting and heating increases day by day. Hydroelectric power plants and fossil fuel resources have met said needs for many years. However, said resources fail to meet the energy demands of increasing population. In addition, it is known that the fossil fuel resources are limited and the use thereof damage the environment. For example, when fossil fuels are burnt, they emit greenhouse gasses such as carbon dioxide and methane to the atmosphere, and cause global warming.

As a result of the abovementioned conditions, the attentions are focused on energy resources such as nuclear and solar energy. The use of nuclear energy is limited due to the threats such as radiation leakage and explosion. Solar energy is accepted as a more reasonable energy resource. Solar energy is an energy resource that is safe, environmentally-friendly and more importantly, never-ending. Namely, it is a renewable energy resource. The increasing energy need of the world and the fact that fossil fuels will run out reveal that the use of permanent and renewable energy use and solar energy are required.

The common way for accumulating and transforming solar energy is that a central collector positioned on a typical power tower or reflectors which focus on a receiver and which are known as heliostat (mirror) are used. In accordance with the current methods today, solar power tower consists of 1000 or more heliostats and is based on providing high heat by focusing the sun beams onto the collector on the solar power tower. The heat obtained may be over 1000°C. In the solar power tower in the state of art, the solar energy obtained is limited due to the area covered by the mirrors. Moreover, some of the energy is wasted due to different losses.

Liquefied salt compounds and hydrogen are used as heat conveyor in order to generate water vapor in today's technology. This type of heat conveyors make the solar power tower more complex and the installation and maintenance costs are increased. Therefore, solar power tower system cannot compete with the costs of electricity obtained from fossil fuels.

In the state of art, there are some applications in national and international literature relating solar power tower. The national application numbered TR201314013 among said applications relates to a support used for supporting the heliostats (mirrors) facing the collectors on the solar power tower, and does not provide solutions for the abovementioned problems. The international application numbered WO2014194017 comprises a spherical collector provided on top of the solar power tower and said collector is rotated constantly by a motor and a gear connected to said motor by connecting to another gear to which said gear is connected and into which spherical collector fits and thus, the collector is prevented from melting. This application does not also provide a solution for the abovementioned problems.

As a result, due to the abovementioned problems and lack of solutions it is required to make a development in the related technical field.

OBJECT OF THE INVENTION The present invention aims to solve the abovementioned problems, eliminate all the disadvantages and provide some additional advantages.

The object of the present invention is to provide a solar power tower that requires fewer reflectors by evaporating the water in the form of particles instead of heating the water as a mass, and by generating vapor rapidly in a shorter time without using any heat conveyor. In order to achieve this object, a spraying mechanism that sprays the water to the collector (receiver) in the form of particles is developed. Thus, it is not required to use thousands of reflectors (heliostat) as in other solar power towers. Therefore, the installation costs are decreased.

Another object of the present invention is to convey the water vapor to the vapor tank with higher heat and to minimize the heat losses. In order to achieve this object, apart from the collector that evaporates the water, a reflector (heliostat) in different angle for air, and a collector for air have been developed and said heated air is transferred to a vapor tank having a higher heat capacity within a pipe together with water vapor. Therefore, heat loss is also minimized. In addition, apart from water the use of different organic materials which preferably have a lower evaporation degree can be used in the system.

Another object of the present invention is to minimize the production, installation and maintenance costs and enable the solar energy to compete in production of electricity. In the system designed, no heat conveyor is used for evaporating the water. Instead, the small water particles sprayed at the back surface of the collector are evaporated easily.

The structural and characteristic features, working principles and advantages of the present invention will be more clearly understood thanks to the figures below and the detailed description written with reference to those figures. Therefore, the evaluation needs to be done by taking these figures and the detailed description into consideration.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

Figure 1 . The view of the exemplary working principle of the solar power tower. REFERENCE NUMERALS 1 . Solar power unit 2. Mirror

3. Transfer opening

4. Vapor tank

5. Cooler

6. Turbine 7. Generator

8. Transfer line

9. Feeding pump

10. Burning chamber 1 1 . Air 12. Absorption opening 13. Outer pipe (for air) 14. Feedback line

15. Intermediate transfer line

20. Evaporation chamber 21 . Waste liquid line 22. Spraying mechanism

23. Liquid

24. Inner pipe (for vapor) 300. Feeding system

330, Feeding tank 331 . Feeding line

40. Power tower

41 . Transparent material 50. Transfer line 60 Collector 61 . Heating surface

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PRESENT INVENTION

The solar power unit (1 ) is a structure consisting of a power tower (40), evaporation chamber (20), burning chamber (10), mirrors (2), transfer line (8), vapor tank (4), cooler (5), feeding system (300), turbine (6), generator (7), and transfer line (50) which provides feeding the generated energy to the electric network.

The power tower (40) is a structure with two chambers and vertical axis, which consists of evaporation chamber (20) in which the liquid (23) is evaporated, and burning chamber (10) in which the air (1 1 ) is heated. There are at least two mirrors (2) around said power tower (40). Evaporation chamber (20) is positioned on top of said power tower (40) and burning chamber (10) is positioned under said evaporation chamber (20). The surfaces of said evaporation chamber (20) and burning chamber (10), which face the mirrors (2), are covered with transparent material (41 ) in order to absorb the beams received from the reflective mirror (2). When required, said transparent material (41 ) is provided with minimum opening in order to prevent beam reflections arising from the transparent material (41 ), and the sun beams are transferred directly to the evaporation chamber (20).

The evaporation chamber (20) is a closed structure consisting of collector (60) collecting the beams received from said mirror (2), spraying mechanism (22) that sprays the liquid (23) to said collector (60) in the form of particles, and transfer opening (3) that transfers the vapor mass occurring in said evaporation chamber (20) to the transfer line (8).

The feeding system (300) is a structure consisting of a feeding tank (330) storing the liquid (23) that fill be fed to the spraying mechanism (22), feeding line (331 ) connected to said feeding tank (330), and feeding pump (9) pumping the liquid (23) received from the feeding line (331 ) to the spraying mechanism (22).

The cooler (5) is the heat converter that transforms the vapor used in the turbine (6) into liquid again. The liquid (23) changing into liquid phase in said cooler (5) is transferred again to the feeding tank (330) from here.

The spraying mechanism (22) is a mechanism that is connected to the feeding tank (330) by means of feeding line (331 ) and sprays the liquid (23) received from said feeding tank (330) by means of feeding pump (9), onto the heating surface (61 ) of the collector (60) provided within the evaporation chamber (20) in the form of particles. The particles among the liquid (23) particles sprayed from the spraying mechanism (22), which are not evaporated, slide through the heating surface (61 ) thanks to the bevel of the collector (60) and are fed back to the feeding tank (330) by means of waste liquid line (21 ).

The burning chamber (10) is a closed structure consisting of collector (60) collecting the beams received from said mirror (2), absorption openings (12) feeding the air (1 1 ) to said burning chamber (10), feedback line (14) transferring the air (1 1 ) reaching the vapor tank (4) to the burning chamber (10) again, and transfer opening (3) transferring the heated air (1 1 ) to the transfer line (8).

Said mirrors (2) focus the beams received from sun on the collector (60) provided in the evaporation chamber (20). Said mirrors (2) are at least two pieces and one of them is focused on the evaporation chamber (20) and the other one is focuses on the burning chamber (10). Therefore, the positioning angles thereof are different from each other. The transfer line (8) is a pipe line consisting of intertwined inner pipe (24) and outer pipe (13) and feeds vapor to the vapor tank (4). Vapor passes through the inner pipe (24) and is fed by means of the evaporation chamber (20) thanks to the transfer opening (3). The heated air (1 1 ) passes through the outer pipe (13) and air (1 1 ) received from the burning chamber (10) by means of transfer opening (3) is transferred to the transfer line (8) by means of intermediate transfer line (15). The heated air (1 1 ) is transferred to the vapor tank (4) together with vapor. After the vapor is transferred to the vapor tank (4), the air (1 1 ) is fed to the burning chamber (10) again by means of feedback line (14). Three feeding pumps (9) are provided in solar power unit (1 ). One of them feeds the liquid

(23) in the feeding tank (330) to the spraying mechanism (22). The other one feeds the vapor released from the evaporation chamber (20) to the vapor tank (4). The third one feeds the vapor released from the turbine (6) to the cooler (5).

The working principle of solar power unit (1 ) is generally as follows; water based liquid (23) is transformed into vapor by means of sun beam and said vapor is converted into mechanic action in the turbine (6) and electricity is generated in the generator (7). The beams received from sun are reflected from the mirrors (2) and collected in the collectors (60), one of which is provided in the burning chamber (10), and the other one is provided in the evaporation chamber (20), and heat said collectors (60). The liquid (23) received from the feeding line (331 ) connected to the feeding tank (330) by means of feeding pump (9) is sprayed onto the heating surface (61 ) of the collector (60) in the form of particles by means of spraying mechanism (22), and changes into vapor phase in a short time and passes to the inner pipe

(24) via transfer opening (3). Meanwhile, the air (1 1 ) received from the environment and feedback line (14) passes through the absorption openings (12) and is heated in the burning chamber (10) by means of collector (60) and passes to the outer pipe (13) through the transfer opening (3) by means of intermediate transfer line (15). The air (1 1 ) and vapor flow within said transfer line (8) in different pipes, but in contact and while the vapor is passing to the vapor tank (4) by means of feeding pump (9), the air (1 1 ) goes with the vapor line until said vapor tank (4). The liquid (23) is fed to the turbine (6) after the vapor tank (4) and mechanic action is achieved, and the air (1 1 ) is fed to the burning chamber (10) again through feedback line (14) in order to take place in the cycle again. The mechanic action in the turbine (6) is transferred to the generator (7) by means of shaft and transformed into electric energy. Said electric energy is fed to the electric network by means of transfer lines (50). The vapor passing through the turbine (6) is transferred to the cooler (5) by means of feeding pump (9) in order to take place in the cycle again, and is provided with appropriate temperature for the feeding pump (9). Said cycle goes on as it is.

Claims

1 . Solar power unit (1 ) consisting of vertical-axis power tower (40), mirrors (2) positioned around said power tower (40) in appropriate angles and reflecting the beams received from sun, evaporation chamber (20) that collects the beams received from said mirrors (2) by means of transparent material (41 ) and is a closed structure, collector (60) provided in said evaporation chamber (20) and collecting the sun beams received from the mirrors (2), heat-conveying liquid (23) changing into vapor phase by means of said collector (60), feeding system (300) transferring said liquid (23) to the collector (60), turbine (6) transforming the heat of said vapor into mechanic action, transfer line (8) transferring the liquid (23) changing into vapor phase to the turbine (6), and generator (7) transforming the mechanic action generated in said turbine (6) into the electric energy, characterized in comprising;

- spraying mechanism (22) that sprays the liquid (23) received from feeding system (300) onto the heating surface (61 ) of said collector (60) in the form of particles.

2. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in comprising burning chamber (10) that is connected to said transfer line (8) by means of intermediate transfer line (15), heats the air (1 1 ) received via absorption opening (12) by means of the collector (60) therein, and collects the sun beams received from the mirror (2) by means of transparent material (41 ).

3. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 2, characterized in comprising feedback line (14) that feeds the air (1 1 ) going with vapor until said turbine (6), to the burning chamber (10) again.

4. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in that said transfer line (8) is an intertwined structure consisting of inner pipe (24), through which vapor passes, and outer pipe (13) which covers said inner pipe (24) and through which, heated air (1 1 ) passes.

5. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in that the liquid (23) used as heat conveyor is water or a different organic material with a lower evaporation degree.

6. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in that said feeding system (300) comprises feeding tank (330) connected to the spraying mechanism (22) by means of feeding line (331 ).

7. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in that the collector (60) provided in said burning chamber (10) is concave.

8. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in that there are at least two mirrors (2) positioned in different angles in such a manner that one of them is focused on the burning chamber (10) and the other one is focuses on the evaporation chamber (20).

9. Solar power unit (1 ) according to Claim 1 , characterized in comprising waste liquid line (21 ) that feeds the particles among the liquid (23) particles sprayed from the spraying mechanism (22), which are not evaporated, back to the feeding tank (330) thanks to the bevel of the collector (60).