Inertial pneumatic wave energy device
AssigneeLone Gull Holdings, Ltd.
InventorsGarth Alexander Sheldon-Coulson, Brian Lee Moffat, Daniel William Place
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Abstract
A buoyant wave energy device is disclosed that incorporates an open-bottomed tube of substantial length in which is partially enclosed a first body of water that oscillates in response to wave action. The device incorporates a buoy to which an upper end of the tube is connected and inside of which is trapped a second body of water of substantial mass. A differential phase in the oscillations of the water trapped in the tube, and the oscillations of the buoy of augmented mass, result in the periodic compression of a pocket of air trapped at the top of the tube, and in the subsequent expulsion of pressurized air through a turbine, thereby generating electrical power.
Claims7
An unmoored, oscillating water column wave energy converter, comprising:
- a buoy having a hollow interior volume;
- an open tube downwardly depending from the buoy;
- an air turbine in fluid communication with the interior volume and configured to be actuated by air pressurized through oscillations of water in the open tube;
- a generator operatively connected to the air turbine;
- a plurality of computers configured to be energized by the generator;
- and
- a propulsion system configured to navigate the unmoored, oscillating water column wave energy converter over a body of water.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.