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Yury S. POTAPOV
Quantum Thermal Power Plants [ KTPP ]



Alexander FROLOV : New Sources of Energy [ Excerpt ]

Let’s consider this Potapov's scheme. The pump 6 pumps water into the "cyclone" 3; after the acceleration in the cyclone, the water exits through the nozzle 9 to the water turbine 11, which is connected to an electrical generator. A second hydraulic turbine 14, which  is also connected to an electrical generator, is installed in the lower tank 13. At the outlet  of the nozzle 9 of the vortex heat generator, the temperature of the working medium is  about 70-100 Degrees by Celsius at a pressure of 8-10 Atm. This flow ensures the  operation of the first turbine. The turbine in the lower vessel is driven by a liquid that  moves out of the upper vessel under its own weight.   Thus, the Potapov design can generate heat and electricity without the use of fuels and  other external resources.

Fig. 30. Autonomous power plant by Yury S. Potapov

       
Let’s consider another project with Yuri Semenovich Potapov of 2004-2005. It was named  the "molecular motor" by Potapov. It means we tried to take off part of kinetic energy of the air molecules to get additional torque of the rotor. Photo of this device in Faraday Lad  ltd. is shown in Fig. 31.

Fig. 31. Molecular generator in Faraday Lab Ltd., St. Petersburg 2004


The name "molecular" refers to the kinetic energy of air molecules, which determines their temperature. Air molecules move chaotically, the vector sum of their velocities is zero, but we can at least partially convert their energy into useful work if we create their unidirectional movement (flow laminarization). The laminarization can be geometrically  designed by someelements of the device and it does not require any energy source. Note that we will consider a similar approach later to make a specialty nanomaterial that can convert the heat motion of gas molecules into useful work. In theory, under normal conditions, one cubic meter of air contains 1 kg of molecules, all  molecules are moving at a speed about 500 meters per second. This corresponds to the  kinetic energy of a 1 kg body moving at a speed of 500 meters per second. Accordingly, by taking some part of this kinetic energy, we can increase the rotor torque by cooling  the environment. Yuri Semenovich Potapov took part in the planning, and then he worked with designers of the plant to manufacture this device.

The project was funded by my company Faraday Lab ltd. In theory, we expected that  there would be enough power at the turbine generator outlet through which the airflow  passes to provide enough power for the electric fan and some electric payload. The  turbine was supplied with air from a radial fan via an air duct, in which special  conditions had to be created.
             
It is obvious that, similar to the cases previously considered, excess kinetic energy is  already generated here by the fan since the centrifugal forces here make work to   compress the air. Further energy transformation  should be provided by passive  components of the air duct without consuming the energy of the primary source.   The electric energy of this process was generated by standard electric generator GS-250  with a nominal output of 60 kW. The conversion of the air flow pressure into the kinetic  rotational energy was provided by the turbine of a helicopter, it is gas turbine engine of  the type GTD-350 via a standard reduction gear. The air supply to the turbine inlet was  initially provided by a radial fan of the VBZ type with a rotor diameter about 1 meter and a consumption of 7 kW/h. Later we replaced this VBZ fan with a new VDS-5 radial fan with an output of 800 cubic meters of air per hour and a power consumption about 5 kW  per hour.

Fig. 32 Alexander Frolov in Faraday Lab ltd. and generator


Our research proved that the concept of using air as a working medium in autonomous power plants is absolutely real. We managed to get around 3 kW of useful power with incandescent lamps, which did not affect the increase in power consumption.  We can say that there is a certain "positive connection" in this experimental setup, i.e. when the generator is under electrical load or the air duct between the turbine and fan is completely closed with a cover, then the power consumption of the fan is significantly reduced (from 6-7 kW to 4 -5 kW).

The main idea here is that the kinetic energy of the air flow in this device increases due to centrifugal forces as a result of the compression of the working medium (air). At the same time, the power consumption of the fan can be minimized by various methods, for  example by installing capacitor compensators for the reactive power of the drive and finetuning
the circuits for electric LC resonance.

We examined some aspects of optimizing this design. In the section from the outlet of the radial fan to the turbine, an air duct with a diameter of 400 mm (along the diameter of the turbine) and a length of 1 meter was installed. In this duct way we have installed special reflectors to get process of rotation of the air mass when it is moving along the  way. By this additional reflectors  the output power of the electric generator was increased by 5-7% compared to the rectilinear movement of the air mass. The increase in power at the output of the electrical generator occurred without increasing the power consumption of the fan, due to a change in the trajectory of the air flow. The trajectory was changed from linear to vortex one.
        
The perspectives to get an autonomous mode were slim, as the kinetic energy of the airflow from the VDS-5 fan was insufficient to overcome the losses (efficiency of the turbine and generator). For example, if the fan consumes 5 kW of electricity, we could get up to 3 kW of power in the generator load, but a further increase in the load would lead to a loss of power quality (decrease in speed and voltage drop at the generator output). It was decided to increase the volume and pressure of the working air mass, and we have planned to use AF53 compressor with a working pressure an order of magnitude higher than the VDS-5.

 Due to a lack of funding for this topic and technical problems with the turbine gearbox, the project was terminated in 2005. The experimental setup was sold to another company. I know from further research on the subject that despite the involvement of professional aerodynamics specialists, virtually no valuable results have been obtained. Unfortunately, they did not turn to me for theoretical advices on this topic.

The foreign analogues of this project, we can remember company named EF9 Energy Systems, which also raised the question of converting the heat energy of atmospheric air into useful work. Their website contains little information about the research, but describes the theory of the process in sufficient detail

http://ef9energysystems.com/  

They believe that the main role in this energy conversion is played by the "Bernoulli effect". The goals of this company currently include the creation of a 50 kW generator for private houses as well as an energy generator for vehicles.



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