Hi Forrest & Group,
Careful with blowing pressurized air into water if there are fish. You could wind up with the same problem they have in large rivers (like the Columbia) where the hydro electric dams actually increase the amount of dissolved gasses (air) in the water much greater than atmospheric pressure. I won't go into detail here, unless the group wants an extended lesson on supersaturation and gas bubble disease, but here would be my recommendation. It will not matter what your air discharge pressure is, just keep it very near the surface. Problems for our fishy friends arise when we induce high-pressure air at significant depth. This will tend to raise the amount of dissolved gasses in the water above atmospheric pressure. This will not bother fish at the same depth, but with time they will equilibrate that pressure within their bodies. Then, if they come up toward the surface, the gasses will come out of solution creating bubbles. This is exactly the same phenomena we humans experience when we go diving. When we come up, we get the bends. This can be lethal to us and fish as well. (Just ask the Corps of Engineers!). You will have numerous solutions to prevent this potential problem. In fact, I would suggest some kind of clutch to disengage your compressor so you could reduce wear. Jay Turkovsky ----- Original Message ----- From: "Forrest Robinson" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Tuesday, November 02, 2004 8:38 AM Subject: [microhydro] Storing energy as compressed air I have a unique piece of land that has a 100 year old cistern on top of a waterfall. At some point I will re-establish the pipe and use the ~50' of head for power generation via a pelton wheel at the bottom. I am in no rush for power in the form of electricity since there is no dwelling on the property and I cann't justify replacing batteries every couple years. However, we often camp on land and do heavy crafts (chain saw rustic furniture etc). It occurs to me that I can put a flow over wheel adjacent to the cistern and use it to drive an air compressor. I can bury some tanks in the ground for compressed air storage. From a control standpoint I suspect the wheel would stall once the stored pressure reaches a limit or I can put an pressure relief valve that dumps air into the water once it gets up to ~120psi. The fish wouldn't mind additional airation of the water! The compressed air would drive all sorts of air tools. It would probably be quite slow to recover a depleted tank, but that doesn't matter. I can always add tanks, or go fishing. I'm thinking I can find an old-fashioned (oil type) compressor that normally would have a 1-3 hp electric motor for a drive. My flow over water wheel will be about 5' diameter with ~50 gpm flow so the hp I can deliver to the compressor will be a small fraction of what the compressor is capable of, however I will run it slower but with the same torque. The torque seems to be just a matter of pully diameters. I question if air compressors are in-efficient if run slowly. If you have experience with this I'd love to get some feedback. Forrest Robinson Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/FGYolB/TM --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> Does your company feature in the microhydro business directory at http://microhydropower.net/directory ? If not, please register free of charge and be exposed to the microhydro community world wide! NOTE: The advertisements in this email are added by Yahoogroups who provides us with free email group services. The microhydro-group does not endorse products or support the advertisements in any way. More information on micro hydropower at http://microhydropower.net To unsubscribe: send empty message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/microhydro/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/
