Description of the Buoyant Gravity Engine (BGE) For brevity, I will refer to the invention, "Buoyant Gravity Engine" as BGE.
This invention relates to water driven electrical generation. It differs from all others in that the power is derived from the buoyant lift of water to turn generators.
Other existing systems use the falling flow of water to turn turbines.
Background Man has used moving water sources to provide power to operate milling and irrigation devices for thousands of years.
In our era, massive hydro electric dam installations create huge lakes out of roaring rivers to harness their power. These dams produce plentiful amounts of electricity but at a high cost to the environment.
Sources of power generation using the earth's oceans and seas, while in existence, are far less common. There are several existing methods of obtaining electricity from the power of the sea such as:
(2) a) Tidal Barrage - basically a river dam placed in a bay near shore.
b) Current Mills - similar to land based windmills but mounted upside down in the sea.
c) Salt Duck - A cam shaped device that floats on the surface of the sea. and is rolled over and over by successive waves.
d) Shore Funnels - Crashing shore waves are funneled into a turbine.
The Tidal Barrage has been built at several sites to a Large scale. This system involves capturing the incoming tide behind a shore dam or "barrage" in a bay or estuary. This water is held until the outside tide has receded. The captured tide is then released through turbines back in to the sea.
All of these systems involve using the horizontal movement of the water or the "flow".
The BGE uses the buoyancy provided by a rising tide, followed by the gravitational pull on the engine float (2) of a falling tide. The BGE is a very simple device that will harness these opposing forces. The basic principal of the BGE is similar to a toilet tank with the float inside. As water fills the toilet tank, the float is forced upward and when the toilet is flushed and the water drains from the tank, the float drops.
In this description of the BGE, I am using cables and a spool to operate the generators.
Similar results can be obtained using the BGE float to pressurize water in a hydraulic ram and to send that water through a turbine.
(3) The BGE uses gears and transmissions to increase the speed of rotation it receives from the spool (4). These components as well as the generators are existing technology. So no elaboration will be given as to their manufacture.
The BGE can be built to operate at almost any scale size within the limits of engineering.
A small unit could power a home or small machine, while a large installation could carry an industrial site atop the float (2) and supply power to operate it and surplus to sell to market. The housing (1) of the BGE could be built into the supporting structure of many marine facilities. A highway bridge could be partnered with a BGE.
The BGE can be built from almost any structural material. Example, wood, plastic, metals, ceramics, concrete etc. I used steel reinforced concrete in this description for the housing (1) and the float (2).
The largest part ofthe BGE is the engine housing (1) or shell. The shape ofthese main parts can vary. A smaller engine housing could appear like a pipe and the float could be a ball inside the pipe. This description is of a larger engine, the engine housing (1) is shaped like a box with open sides {ocean/sea version) and with a pyramid shaped top or roof. There is a land-based version of BGE, it has closed sides to contain a water supply within its walls.
The base of the engine housing (1) must be fixed firmly to the earth (for the land version) or sea floor (for the ocean version). The base of the ocean version may have to be weighted to keep the float from lifting the entire machine away from the sea floor.
The overall height of the BGE is determined by the size of each particular BGE, the depth of the water and the high to low range of the local tides.
(4) The second main part of the BGE is the floating generation platform (float) (2). This float is an enclosed box-like structure that is contained and floats within the engine housing. The interior of the float contains the spool (4) and the gears, transmission and generators (6). The spool (4) is mounted horizontally on a shaft (5). This would look similar to a spool of thread with a pencil inserted through it like an axle.
Continuous cables, with one end fastened to and held by the center area of the pyramid ceiling (Point A) are suspended down into the top center of the float (2).
Inside the float these cables wrap around the spool (4) several times and then continue down through water tight seals at the bottom center of the float and down to the bottom center of the engine housing (Point B). These cables must be drawn tight as they are fastened. The tension of the cables around the spool will cause the spool to turn as the water level inside the engine chamber raises and lowers the float. As the spool turns, the generators turn and electricity is provided.
In the ocean version of BGE, the incoming tide provides the lift and on the falling tide the weight of the generation float chamber (2) forced down by gravity, provides the power to turn the spool.
(5) In the land-based version of BGE, almost any water source provides the fuel to run the BGE. The BGE is situated so that the water can be allowed entry into the top of the engine housing (1) wall. As the water fills the interior of the chamber, the float is forced to rise and generation occurs. When the water has brought the float to the top of the engine-housing chamber, a drain opens at the bottom of the engine-housing and the escaping water causes the float to fall and generation continues. The land based BGE
should be placed within a series or "bank"of BGE's as in drawing #4. In this configuration, as the water is drained from one BGE, it is used to fill the next BGE below it, which causes it to go through it's up and down cycle of generation. When finished, it would in turn drain into the next BGE and so on.
As this land system of BGE's does not require a tremendous volume of water to run it, the number of sites worldwide that could support this system in nearly limitless.
Any environmental effect of a BGE installation would occur during the construction stage. This effect would be almost negligible compared to existing hydro dams and barrage systems.
Once a BGE system is in operation there is no negative impact on the environment.
Darning does not occur, there is no silting, and there is no turbulence damage from massive water discharges. With many BGE installations placed around a territory there is a minimal risk of disruption to a power grid from earthquake or terrorism.
With power systems: being more localized, there is less need for long systems of transmission towers and wires to carry electricity long distances. Less power loss.
(6) An urban system of BGEs could be stacked one above the other and some of the electrical power produced could be used to run pumps to circulate the water from the bottom of the last BGE in the system back up to the top or the first BGE. This would make the system self contained and would not require constant new water in this system.
Other fluids such as oil could replace the water to increase buoyancy.
The land based system can cycle much faster than the ocean system. The speed of each cycle is adjusted at the drain or outflow of the BGE. A larger and faster source of water would allow a faster running and higher producing system. After the first BGE
has drained its water into the second, the outfall drain would close and the inlet would open, allowing several BGEs in a system to produce simultaneously.
The land BGE could be added to an existing hydro-electric dam to augment that system with no further environmental damage. A land system of BGE could be coupled with a town's fresh water system as there is no contamination from the BGE. A city storm sewer could also contain a BGE bank.
The buoyant power of the ocean is tremendous. Consider a large cruise ship or aircraft carrier. With each rise and fall of the daily tides, they are raised and lowered, seemingly without effort.
Benefits over existing systems:
- No flooding of land.
- Minimum environmental damage during construction - No environmental damage when operational - No disruption of fisheries - Construction costs considerably less than hydro dams, nuclear and barrage.
- Localized systems will reduce amount of transmission towers and wires -reduce power loss.
- Quiet running.
- No fuel costs to operate.
- Can be coupled to existing infrastructure or built in conjunction with (eg.
Civic water system, bridges, marinas, storm sewers, dykes).
- Localized systems minimize power disruption from earthquake or possible terrorism.
- No contamination of any kind is produced.
- Land based system of BGEs can be operated on very low volume water sources.
Nearly limitless number of possible sites.