Cooling and control of a load bank used in a power generation system

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9385575-B2
Application number	US-201313894629-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	May 15, 2013
Priority date	May 15, 2013
Publication date	Jul 5, 2016
Grant date	Jul 5, 2016

Abstract

A power generation system that may include a generator having an alternator and an internal combustion engine configured to drive the alternator to generate power. The alternator may convert the mechanical energy created by the engine to electrical energy, such as alternating current. The generator may supply the electrical energy from the alternator to various devices which may be connected with the alternator. The power generation system may further include a load bank. The load bank may include one or more resistive elements, inductive elements, capacitive elements, or combinations of elements. The power generation system may include a cooling system that may remove heat from one or both the internal combustion engine and the load bank. The cooling system may include a liquid that passes through various components of the internal combustion engine to transfer the heat to or from the engine and the load bank.

First claim

What is claimed is:

1. A power generation system comprising:
a generator that includes an alternator and an internal combustion engine that drives the alternator to generate power;
a load bank configured to selectively absorb power from the generator;
a cooling system that includes a liquid, the cooling system configured to operate in a plurality of operating modes; and
a controller that manipulates the liquid in the cooling system based on the operating mode of the cooling system , where the operating modes include a warm-up mode, a low load mode and a high load mode;
where the liquid receives heat from the load bank and supplies heat to the engine in the warm up mode;
where the liquid receives heat from the load bank, receives heat from engine and supplies heat to a heat exchanger in the low load mode; and
where the liquid receives heat from engine and supplies heat to the heat exchanger in the high load mode without receiving heat from the load bank.

2. The power generation system of claim 1 , further comprising a switch for controlling a flow of the liquid through the heat exchanger.

3. The power generation system of claim 1 , where the controller is a generator controller that selectively operates and protects the generator, and where the generator controller is configured to control the load bank to maintain a load on the generator.

4. The power generation system of claim 3 , where the generator controller measures a characteristic of the generator and controls the load bank based on the characteristic.

5. The power generation system of claim 4 , where the characteristic is an operating state of the generator.

6. The power generation system of claim 4 , where the characteristic is a temperature of a component of the internal combustion engine.

7. The power generation system of claim 1 , where the liquid is an ethylene-glycol water mixture.

8. The power generation system of claim 1 , where the load bank includes resistive elements.

9. The power generation system of claim 1 , where the heat exchanger is a radiator.

10. The power generation system of claim 1 , where the heat exchanger is a liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger.

11. The power generation system of claim 10 , where the liquid-to-liquid heat exchanger is configured to exchange heat between the liquid and sea water.

Assignees

• Kohler Co

Inventors

• Danforth Iii Robert J
• Frampton Isaac S

Classifications

• F01P7/14 Primary

  the coolant being liquid · CPC title

• H02K9/19 Primary

  for machines with closed casing and closed-circuit cooling using a liquid cooling medium, e.g. oil · CPC title

• F01P2060/00

  Cooling circuits using auxiliaries · CPC title

• F02D41/0245

  by increasing temperature of the exhaust gas leaving the engine · CPC title

• F01P2060/185

  for alternators or generators · CPC title