Abstract: Water is raised from a lower to a higher level by creating an air/water-droplet environment which is effective to establish a pressure head that imparts an upward velocity to the air in excess of the downward drift velocity of the droplets whereby the latter are carried upwardly by the air. Such an environment is created by introducing droplets of relatively warm water into relatively cool air at the lower end of a vertically oriented lift tower thereby heating the air which rises in the lift tower with a velocity sufficient to carry the droplets to the upper end of the lift tower. By directing the flow at the upper end of the lift tower toward the horizontal, the upwardly directed velocity component of the droplets is lost and they follow a ballistic path into a reservoir from which water is returned to the lower level through a hydraulic turbine.

Abstract: Water is raised from a lower to a higher level by creating an air/water-droplet environment which is effective to establish a pressure head that imparts an upward velocity to the air in excess of the downward drift velocity of the droplets whereby the latter are carried upwardly by the air. Such an environment is created by introducing droplets of relatively warm water into relatively cool air at the lower end of a vertically oriented lift tower thereby heating the air which rises in the lift tower with a velocity sufficient to carry the droplets to the upper end of the lift tower. By directing the flow at the upper end of the lift tower toward the horizontal, the upwardly directed velocity component of the droplets is lost and they follow a ballistic path into a reservoir from which water is returned to the lower level through a hydraulic turbine.