Wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-11168674-B2
Application number	US-201916980331-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Oct 11, 2019
Priority date	Oct 11, 2019
Publication date	Nov 9, 2021
Grant date	Nov 9, 2021

Abstract

A wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device which comprises a buoy-type energy capture system, a platform system and a mooring system. A whole friction liquid heating, thermal storage and power generation device is arranged inside a platform, which improves the adaptability of the whole system to the external environment. A flywheel and liquid friction heating method is adopted to generate heat more efficiently. Inner ratchets and pawls are used to control the movement of a flywheel so that the flywheel always rotates in one direction, and when the rotating speed of the flywheel exceeds that of the inner ratchets, the external wave energy cannot be transferred to the flywheel through the movement of the inner ratchets so as to limit the upper limit of the rotating speed of the flywheel and protect the safety of the flywheel system.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device, comprising:
a buoy-type energy capture system, a platform system and a mooring system; the platform system comprises three parts which are respectively a hot water tank, a generator room and a cooling room from top to bottom, wherein the hot water tank is wrapped with a thermal insulation layer and filled with liquid required for heating;
a flywheel rotor shaft is arranged in the center of the hot water tank, the lower part of the flywheel rotor shaft is in contact with the bottom surface of the hot water tank, a flywheel is fixed by bearings in the middle of the flywheel rotor shaft, and the upper part extends out of the hot water tank and above the platform the flywheel rotor shaft is fixed by bearings on faying surfaces; the flywheel rotor shaft above the platform is sheathed with a plurality of rotary sleeves, each rotary sleeve has an inner ratchet and a pawl inside, the inner ratchet is fixedly connected to the inner wall of the rotary sleeve, and is not in contact with the flywheel rotor shaft, the pawl is fixed on a disc fixedly connected to the flywheel rotor shaft, and a needle roller bearing is arranged between the disc and the inner wall of the rotary sleeve;
a wire-rope is wound around the outer wall of the rotary sleeve, one end of the wire-rope is connected to the buoy-type energy capture system, and the other end is connected to a preloaded spring which is connected to a fixed bar through a ring, a heat collecting pipe is wound around the inner wall of the hot water tank, and has gas working fluid inside; the left and right ends of the heat collecting pipe extend upwards away from the hot water tank and the upper surface of the thermal insulation layer, and then extend downwards along the outer wall of the thermal insulation layer into the generator room,
wherein the generator room comprises at least one turbo-generator and a working fluid pump, and the turbo-generator has a cable extending above the platform for connection with other electrical equipment; both ends of the heat collecting pipe respectively pass through each of the at least one turbo-generators in the generator room, and continue to extend downwards, and finally communicate with a cooling pipe in the sea, the main body of the cooling pipe is a spiral descent pipe with liquid working fluid inside;
a water permeable net connected to the bottom surface of the platform covers outside of the whole cooling pipe, and the water permeable net and the cooling pipe form the cooling room of the platform system;
wherein the mooring system comprises mooring points, mooring lines and anchors, wherein the mooring points are at the bottoms of both sides of the platform, and the mooring lines are connected to the platform through the mooring points and fixed on the seabed with the aid of the anchors;
wherein the buoy-type energy capture system comprises two parts: buoys and motion transfer components, wherein the motion transfer components comprise guide rail rooms, pulley rooms, guide pulleys, fixed pulleys, platform pulleys and wire-ropes, a plurality of buoys uniformly surround the platform, one side of each buoy close to the platform is connected to the guide rail room through the guide pulleys, the pulley room is arranged between the guide rail room and the platform, and the pulley room has a pulley block composed of four fixed pulleys inside, and one end of the wire-rope is bound with the guide pulleys, and the other end starts from the guide rail room and passes the pulley block of the pulley room and the platform pulley fixed on the platform to be finally connected with the rotary sleeve;
during working, the buoys move up and down under the drive of waves and drive the wire-ropes to move; when the buoys move upwards, because the wire-ropes is bound with the guide pulleys, the wire-ropes of the guide rail rooms move upwards at the same time, and the wire-ropes located in the pulley rooms change from moving upwards to moving downwards due to the action of the fixed pulleys; under the action of the platform pulleys, the wire-ropes above the platform moves horizontally towards the left to drive the rotary sleeves to rotate clockwise; at this time, the preloaded springs are stretched, and part of the wave energy is converted to elastic potential energy;
wherein the inner ratchets rotate together with the rotary sleeves but cannot drive the flywheel rotor shafts to rotate due to the action of the pawls, when the buoys move downwards, the wire-ropes are wound back to the rotary sleeves counterclockwise in the tightened state due to the action of the preloaded springs; at this time, thus, the pawls no longer hinder the rotation of the flywheel rotor shafts, and consequently the flywheel rotates under stress;
wherein the rotating flywheel constantly rubs against the liquid filled in the hot water tank to heat the liquid, thereby achieving wave energy thermal storage, the thermal insulation layer ensures to maximize prevention of the hot water tank from conducting heat exchange with the outside;
further direct contact between the heat collecting pipe and the hot liquid, the heat generated by the friction between the flywheel and the liquid can be transferred into the heat collecting pipe with high efficiency, a liquid working fluid in the heat collecting pipe immediately boils and evaporates into gas, and the volume expands rapidly; since liquid continuously enters on the side with the working fluid pump, the gas moves quickly to each of the at least one turbo-generator; the high-speed gas working fluid drives each of the at least one turbo-generators to generate power, and current is transmitted to other electrical equipment through the cable; after entering the cooling pipe, the gas working fluid is condensed into liquid at seawater temperature; and the liquid working fluid is pumped back to the heat collecting pipe by the working fluid pump, and converted to gas by heat for cycle of power generation.

2. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein the outer wall of the heat collecting pipe is covered with the thermal insulation layer to keep the temperature in the heat collecting pipe practically constant.

3. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein the pipe walls of the heat collecting pipe and the cooling pipe are made of metal for fast heat transfer.

4. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein the surfaces of the platform, the buoys, the wireropes and the water permeable net are all treated to extend the service life thereof.

5. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 3 , wherein the surfaces of the platform, the buoys, the wireropes and the water permeable net are all treated to extend the service life thereof.

6. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 1 , wherein the outer surface of the flywheel is made of a rough sandy material to improve the efficiency of heat generation by friction.

7. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 3 , wherein the outer surface of the flywheel is made of a rough sandy material to improve the efficiency of heat generation by friction.

8. The wave energy thermal storage type seawater thermoelectric power generation device according to claim 4 , wherein the outer surface of the flywheel is made of a rough sandy material to improve the efficiency of heat

Assignees

• Univ Dalian Tech

Inventors

• Zhang Chongwei
• Zhuang Qianze
• Ning Dezhi

Classifications

• B63B2035/4433

  Floating structures carrying electric power plants · CPC title

• B63B2021/203

  Mooring cables or ropes, hawsers, or the like; Adaptations thereof · CPC title

• B63B2035/4466

  for converting water energy into electric energy, e.g. from tidal flows, waves or currents · CPC title

• F01K27/00

  Plants for converting heat or fluid energy into mechanical energy, not otherwise provided for · CPC title

• F05B2220/706

  an electrical generator · CPC title