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US 4,370,860 AGranted
Method of and means for generating power from a hot brine source
AssigneeSolmat
InventorGad Assaf
Life of this patent
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AssigneeSolmat
InventorGad Assaf
Estimating the term…
Power is generated from a body of hot brine by injecting a liquid operating fluid, such as butane or Freon, into the brine at a depth where the hydrostatic pressure of the brine is approximately equal to the vapor pressure of the operating fluid at a temperature of the brine for producing a bubble regime in a vertically oriented lift tube whose lower end is immersed in the brine whereby working fluid is raised in the lift tube as the bubbles rise therein. The gaseous operating fluid is separated from the liquid working fluid which is returned to the body of brine, and the gaseous operating fluid is condensed in a condenser and returned in a liquid state for injection into the hot brine at the inlet of the lift tube. The working fluid that is raised in the lift tube is passed through an hydraulic turbine.
A method for generating power from a body of hot liquid working fluid using a direct contact heat exchanger comprising steps of:
A binary lift for use with a solar pond having an upper layer whose salinity increases montonically with depth for establishing a non-convecting halocline adjacent to the surface of the pond, and having a lower heat storage layer that stores heat absorbed by the halocline due to incident solar radiation and forms a source of hot brine, the binary lift comprising:
In a binary lift of the type comprising a source of cool working fluid, a source of hot working fluid connected to the lower end of a vertically oriented lift tube, source of volatile operating fluid that is injected into the hot working fluid at the lower end of the tube thereby vaporizing the operating fluid and reducing the average density in the lift tube below the density of the hot working fluid outside the tube whereby the working fluid is lifted into a separator/condenser at the top of the lift tube where the working fluid is separated from the gaseous operating fluid and returned to the source of hot working fluid, and vaporized operating fluid is condensed and returned to the source of operating fluid, the improvement comprising injecting the operating fluid into the hot working fluid in the lift tube at a vertical location at which the pressure of the working fluid is not less that about one-third of the vapor pressure of the operating fluid at the temperature of the hot working fluid.
A power plant comprising:
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.