Pumped Storage Buffer Vessel Pressure Stabilization
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Solution Overview
Problem
Current power generation systems using natural phenomena, such as ocean waves, face inefficiencies due to high inertia in generators, electrical safety issues in ocean installations, and significant energy losses in pipe-based systems, making them complex and costly, while energy storage methods are expensive and environmentally damaging.
Innovation Solution
A pumped storage system with a buffer vessel placed between a natural pond and a reservoir, utilizing high-pressure pumps and pressure accumulators to normalize and store energy, allowing for efficient energy conversion and storage, independent of natural phenomenon instability, and enabling the production of useful work like electricity at peak demand times.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Productivity
If generators are equipped with larger working bodies to capture more wave energy, then energy capture capability is improved, but the generator's inertia increases making it operable only at strong flows, reducing the ratio of time producing energy to total working time
Solution Approach 1:
The system divides the energy capture function into separate wave-activated pumps that operate independently from the power generation turbine. Multiple small pump units capture wave energy across different time intervals, storing water in an elevated reservoir, while the turbine continuously generates power when water is released. This segmentation allows each component to operate optimally without the inertia limitations of large direct-coupled generators.
2Productivity
If electrical equipment is installed adjacent to the working body in ocean areas for direct power generation, then power generation efficiency is improved, but safety systems become complex due to electrical conductivity of sea water
Solution Approach 1:
The invention extracts the electrical generation function from the ocean environment and relocates it to land-based infrastructure. Wave-activated pumps in the ocean convert mechanical wave energy to hydraulic energy by pumping water to an elevated reservoir, eliminating the need for electrical equipment in seawater. The hydroelectric turbine generating electricity is positioned on land where electrical safety concerns are eliminated, while still capturing ocean wave energy through the hydraulic transmission medium.
3Use of energy by moving object
If water is transported from natural water bodies to target engines using pipes and hoses, then energy delivery is achieved, but Bernoulli's Law introduces significant unproductive energy losses
Solution Approach 1:
The system uses gravitational potential energy as the primary energy transmission mechanism. Water is pumped to an elevated reservoir, creating a height difference (potential energy storage). When power is needed, water flows downward through the turbine, converting potential energy to kinetic energy and then to electrical energy. This gravity-based energy transmission eliminates the need for long-distance horizontal pipe transport that would incur significant friction losses according to Bernoulli's Law.
4Adaptability or versatility
If multiple small mechanisms are used to capture energy from natural disturbances, then versatility and adaptability are improved, but useful output from each mechanism is small requiring multiple units in arrays
Solution Approach 1:
The invention merges the output of multiple small wave-activated pump mechanisms into a single centralized water storage reservoir. Each pump unit can operate independently with small output, but their combined effect accumulates water volume in the elevated reservoir. The reservoir acts as a merging point that aggregates energy from multiple sources and time intervals, then delivers unified power through a single turbine, achieving both versatility and sufficient total power output.
Applied Scientific Principles
This section explains which scientific principles are used to turn an abstract innovation direction into a practical engineering solution.
Function Achieved in This Case
The system improves operational reliability and energy efficiency by stabilizing pressure and reducing energy losses, allowing for consistent power generation and storage without the drawbacks of existing methods, effectively addressing the inefficiencies and complexities of current systems.
Implementation Method 1
The tanks are equipped with pressure accumulators to normalize the pressure therein. The buffer capacity at the bottom of water duct is disposed below the reservoir and above the level of the location of natural reservoir, and is equipped with pressure accumulators to protect the water duct and working mechanisms of pressure takeoffs from the hydraulic impact.
Implementation Method 2
These high-pressure pumps pump water by means of water ducts from a natural body of water into the reservoir, placed at a level above the level of the natural body of water location.
Implementation Method 3
a pumped storage system that uses gravitational force of downward movement of water for conversion into electrical energy
Implementation Method 4
a device for pressure conversion of the flow of water coming through the water duct from the reservoir in the consumption energy for the production of useful work
Data Source
AI summary
The invention relates to hydraulic systems with constant delivery of fluid under pressure, using continuous balancing of pressures generated by liquid accumulated in a reservoir and coming from a collecting system. The system converts motion of liquid to operate individual high-pressure pumps, which pump water through water pipes from a natural body of water into the reservoir above sea level. A device for pressure conversion of the flow of water coming through the water duct from the reservoir in the consumption energy for the production of useful work. Tanks are at the bottom of the reservoir and connected to high-pressure pumps that pump water at high pressure, and which are equipped with pressure accumulators to normalize the pressure. A buffer vessel at the bottom of water duct, below the reservoir and above the sea level, is equipped with pressure accumulators.