HARNESSING ELECTRICITY FROM CONTROLLED TORNADO

The invention described herein safely creates, sustains and controls tornado in a structurally sound, heat resistant tower for generation of electricity. Number of new inventions are described. The most unique is delivery of central super cold air via a duct. This feature will be a pull through thread to enhance all the three sources of energy in a tornado. It is a low cost construction device using present day, available technology. When Placed near an user community it will have low cost of transmission. It will use waste heat for cheaper cost of production. It would be a demand controlled production, conserving resources when electricity not needed and be able to produce more when needed. Thus it will be a win for the investors for better returns on investment by avoiding wasteful unpaid production, and a win for the communities providing more electricity when needed.

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Description
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

Not Applicable.

FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT

Not applicable.

NAMES OF THE PARTIES TO A JOINT RESEARCH AGREEMENT

Not applicable.

INCORPORATION-BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON COMPACT DISC

Not applicable.

BACKGROUND OF INVENTION

1. Field of Invention

Field of invention is related to controlled creation of tornado safely and generating Electricity from it. Subject is related to aeromechanics, heat and mass exchange and power engineering in which motion of a continuous hot and cold air and their mixture thereof defines the functional efficiency.

CLASSIFICATIONS

  • US CLASSIFICATION: 415/4.2, 415/909, 415/4.4 415/208.2, 415/8, 415/907, 290/55, 290/44
  • INTERNATIONAL CLASSIFICATION: F03D9/00, FO3D1/04, F03D7/06, F03G6/04
  • COOPERATIVE CLASSIFICATION: Y02E10/465, Y02E10/728, Y10S415/909, F05B2240/131, F05B2240/9111,F05B2240/98, F03D9/007, F05B2240/132, F03G6/045, F03D1/04
  • EUROPEAN CLASSIFICATION: F03G6/04B.F03D9/00E, F03D1/04, F03D11/04
  • EXTERNAL LINKS: USPTO, USPTO ASSIGNMENT.

Tornados occurring in nature are classified from F0 to F5 by wind velocity and the damage they can inflict. F0 has winds up to 72 miles/hour while F5 has wind velocity of up to 318 miles per hour. Since power contained in a wind is proportional to the air velocity cubed. It means if the speed of air in a tornado is 5 times more it will contain (5×5×5)125 times more power.

Our invention will safely Create and sustain F2 tornado with winds of up to 150 miles/hr or 70 m/s. F2 tornado in the nature would be classified as a lower scale significant tornado. Generation of electricity could be increased or decreased by modifying various factors. Energy in a tornado is contained in 3 areas:

    • a. Wind velocity: Higher the velocity more the energy.
    • b. Centrifugal force: Depending on the velocity of the circulating air will create power of centrifugal force.
    • c. Rise of hot humid air creating huge suction force on the earth underneath the rising tornado.

We will focus on all these 3 sources to enhance the production of electricity.

2. Description of Related Art:

In prior art relating to the creation of “artificial tornado” (Michaud L M U.S. Pat. No. 7,086,823 B2; Michaud L M, describes an Atmospheric Vortex Engine in which a tornado-like vortex is produced by admitting air tangentially in the base of a cylindrical wall. This vortex is started by heating the air within the circular wall with fuel. According to him, the heat required to sustain the vortex once established can be the naturally occurring heat content of ambient air. It has been assumed that once established, the vortex would remain stable based only on what one would consider boundary conditions at ground level. In a later publication U.S. Pat. No. 7,938,615 B2 published May 10, 2011 Michaud did mention that the industrial heat waste or warm sea water could be the source of heat to sustain this vortex but did not mention many possible ways to enhance the tornado power for harnessing and enhancing the energy production disclosed in the foregoing presentation here. While a tornado provides useful illustration and has motivated this inventor, as well as others referenced herein, use of the vortex as a stable conduit to higher atmosphere will require mechanisms beyond any offered by prior art proposals.

A natural tornado is a fleeting phenomenon arising from a number of factors as a part of a much larger storm system. Energy must be expanded to maintain the vortex which in the natural tornado are produced by the storm system surrounding the tornado vortex itself.

“Computer simulations of the tornado, which can replicate the naturally occurring wind patterns use a “forcing function” to model the vertical updraft in the center of the tornado in the nature (Nolan D S, Almgren A S, Bell J B, Studies of the relationship between environmental forcing and the structure and dynamics of tornado-like vortices, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory Report LBNL-47554, Sept. 2000). In their thesis they describe Tornado as a result of thermal anomaly, i.e. the presence of air warmer at an altitude of several kilometers above the ground than at ground level. There would be no tornado without the forcing function—and if the forcing function were placed at ground level, the vortex would not reach to higher altitudes. In fact, the vortex of a natural tornado is established at higher altitudes first and it only touches the ground as it stretches downwards along its axis of rotation”.

Steven K. Levine U.S. Pat. No. 3,936,652 disclose a power system based on updraft generated by a cooling tower of an existing power plant, e.g. a nuclear power plant.

Gerald I. Stillman and Rudolf A. Wiley U.S. Pat. No. 4,397,793 disclose a method of increasing the efficiency of a cooling tower or a stack, by introducing a vortex via vertical slits in the wall of the tower or stack.

John E. McAllister, Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,499,034 disclose a cooling tower supplemented by a vortex which increases the efficiency and thus allows for power extraction via windmills placed into the inlet passages.

Melvin L. Prueitt, U.S. Pat. No. 5,483,798, disclose a convection tower wherein the airflow is driven by cooling the air via water sprays.

Michael A. Dunn, U.S. Pat. No. 6,772,593, disclose a vortex driven power station, whereby the air is warmed up under solar collectors—a concept similar to an updraft solar chimney described elsewhere but it is a very inefficient model.

The closest work to the invention described here is by Slobodan Tepic in U.S. 201 302 290 15 A1 where they disclose generation of electrical power utilizing surface-level hot air as the heat source, high atmosphere as the heat sink and a microwave beam to initiate and control air updraft. In their disclosure the hot humid air is drawn through the power plant by under pressure created by buoyancy of the air column above the plant that is heated by a high-power microwave beam emanating from the plant itself. The microwave generator may be powered by a fraction of the electrical energy produced by the plant.

They further describe that the “Best mode of carrying out his invention would be to create electricity by using a platform floating at sea, utilizing hot humid sea air as the heat source and the high atmosphere as the heat sink. Anchored along the continental coasts of the tropical/subtropical oceans, where average absorbed solar insolation is in the range of 200 to 300 W/m2 and sea surface temperatures are in the order of 300 K. Such plant could be built to continuously operate at a gigawatt (GW) level. Air circulation around the center of the plant resembles a natural cyclone; vertical outflow is induced by buoyancy of the air column above the plant heated by a microwave beam aimed from the plant upward. The frequency of the microwave beam is centered at approximately 60 GHz, within an absorption band of molecular oxygen. The preferred source of the microwave beam is a gyrotron.”

The purpose of using Microwave beam is to keep the tornado in place and using it as a heating element and acting as an invisible chimney to keep the energy of the tornado contained thus making it more effective for harnessing energy.

In theory it is a novel concept but practically it is an off shore gigawatt level plant proposal with many parts of technology to be developed and refined before it can become a reality.

The invention described herein proposes a device that does not need to be off shore, it can be put together with in the realms of present day technology near an user community to decrease the cost of transmission. It will be an independently packaged system. It will provide electricity to the community in a reliable and controllable way using jet turbines coupled with generators which will produce electricity as soon as they are put together and while it produces electricity it will also produce wasted heat coming out of the tail of turbines. This wasted heat will be used by the device proposed here to produce electricity. Such a plant would be highly efficient and would produce cheaper electricity because it will be using low cost waste fuel. In addition this device would be producing electricity in response to the demands of the community thus conserving valuable resource of the fossil fuel when demand of electricity is down and produce more electricity when demand is up thus making the project a better investment with greater returns as higher percentage of production will be paid by the customers leading to higher returns on investment and by decreasing the wasted production. This is further described below.

We are proposing to use of exhaust heat of the jet turbines which produce electricity by using natural gas or an alternate fuel. These turbines are reliable with millions of hours of electricity production experience and are currently manufactured by GE and others. Each turbine is coupled with a generator and can produce up to 200 MW electricity. They work at 40% efficiency in single cycle or 60% efficiency if exhaust of two such turbines is used to generate steam. This steam than runs another turbine coupled to a generator increasing the efficiency to 60%.

It means, that in a single cycle there is 60% reject heat available or 40% from each turbine is available in steam generation combined from 2 jet turbines it will be equal to 80% rejected heat for use in the proposed device.

Our proposal would incorporate either 1 such turbine for a 300 MW plant producing 200 MW from turbine itself and 100 MW by using the 60% rejected heat in our device, or use 2 such turbines for a 700 MW plant (400 MW from 2 turbines 200 from steam generation and 100 from the device using 80% rejected heat from 2 turbines (40% each) or a set of 3 turbines to produce 1000 MW electricity, 600 MW from 3 turbines plus 200 MW from 2 combined steam generation and additional 200MW by using the rejected heat from all the three combined (40% +40%+60%) turbines by the device proposed. The great thing about all this is that once the device is in place the plant electricity production can be increased from 300 MW to 1000 MW as the needs of the community increase without further outlay in the construction of the device. One would have to just add a modular systems of 1 turbines with their ancillary machines as needed for each step up production as outlined above.

Since these turbine can be quickly ramped up or down for production of electricity, when combined with our invention it will be flexible production set up and in minutes it could respond to the demands of the community. If the demand of electricity goes down the turbines can automatically be ramped down decreasing the production and conserving natural gas or the alternate fuel. If the demand goes up it would ramp up for more electricity for the comfort of the community. This will prevent wasteful production of energy and higher percentage of electricity will be paid by the consumers for better financial results. It actually would be a win win situation for both the community as well as the investors.

Various parts used in the system are being currently used, are reliable and available. Still the system will be economical to construct, and will meet the present day standards of safety and environmental concerns for electricity generation.

One may argue that the device mentioned here would be using heat based on fossil fuel so how can u call it a green project? The answer is, that the device is using only rejected heat. There is no virgin burning of fossil fuel. In many instances such rejected heat is discharged into atmosphere through a chimney and is truly wasted. More electricity will be generated by the use of this wasted heat. Since the generation of electricity would not depend on the wind or sun and would be reliable in production and the cost of production by using wasted fuel would be low it would be profitable from day one, with out the use of tax credits or subsidies from government.

BREIF SUMMARY OF INVENTION

This invention devises a Tower which is made of reinforced concrete and cement, it is structurally sound and is able to withstand negative pressures inside the tower. It is heat resistant to 800 degree centigrade. (FIG. 1 # 3) Rejected heat from jet turbines exhaust is directly introduced in to the tower. (FIG. 1 # 4 & # 10 and FIGS. 2 # 4 & #8 -Bold arrows). Jet turbine exhaust is ideal for this project as the exhaust comes out of the tail of the jet turbine at much higher temperature and pressure. Both attributes are complementary to our system. Reject heat from a Coal or nuclear plants can also be used.

In addition to the heat source of the jet turbines we will be using Geothermal energy (water at 100 degree centigrade) to use as a heat source as well as to increase the relative humidity of the circulating air in the tower for enhancement of energy. Fine mist sprays would be used inside the tower (FIG. 2 # 7) and also at the inner openings of the lower turbines to increase relative humidity as well as temperature. This particular way to use geothermal water in conjunction to the jet turbine exhaust has not been described before.

A number of inventors have proposed a tubular or circular tower with axial arrangement of the turbines on the wall of the tower, with or without defining walls or with bigger diameter and lesser height to produce tornado but none have described an efficient way to enhance the energy of such produced tornado and the features of the tower mentioned above and in forthcoming summary below.

To fortify the upward rise of the hot and humid air mass and the velocity of the circulating air of the Tornado and to enhance the suction power of the tornado, turbines are placed in a double helix orientation FIG. 5 This is to create a wider band of air coming in the tower from outside, Further, Each turbine opening in the tower is facing 5 degrees (more or less) upwards to push the air up. These combined features are designed to augment the upward rise of the air mass and create more suction on the floor of the tower by pushing the rising hot and humid air mass up. This orientation to accomplish this function has not been described before.

This devise incorporates placement of the turbines at the base of Tower at least 20 or more meters away from the tower wall FIG. 1 # 5. This feature has allowed us to reduce the diameter of the tower by 40 or more meters (20 meters on each side) saving considerable cost of the cement, reinforcement materials and labor. We will use these savings to increase the height of the tower to produce more energy by placing the turbines inside the tower near the wall.

There will be 4 to six additional turbines placed inside the tower sitting close to the wall to use the power of the centrifugal force produced by the Tornado and create additional net energy. (FIG. 1 # 2 and inside the tower view FIG. 2 #1). A fraction of the energy produced by these inside turbines would be used to produce super cold air for delivery in the center of the tower. Each inner turbine is 5 times larger than the outer turbines. Just four inside turbine would be equal to 20 turbines placed out side almost doubling the production capacity of electricity. (FIG. 1 # 2 and FIG. 2 # 1). This has not been described before.

There are 4 to 6 longitudinal outside openings along the whole length of the turbines. It is 1 meter (more or less) wide on the inner aspect of the tower wall and 3 meters wide on the out side wall (FIG. 1 # 6 and FIG. 4 #4) looking like a rhomboid opening FIG. 4 # 4. This allows more air to come in from outside and due to Venturi effect, the entering air would increased in the velocity impinging on the inner turbines it would increase the rotation of the inner turbines. (FIG. 4 #4). This incoming air from out side would work synergistically with the inner centrifugal air force increasing over all efficiency of the inner turbines. This special configuration of rhomboid openings on the out side wall to assist inner turbines has not been described before.

A Central duct of 4 meters (or less) in diameter is devised to create an unifying centripetal force in the center of the tower (FIG. 1 #1, FIG. 2 the inside central duct, FIG. 3a central low pressure zone # 2 and FIG. 4 #5.) Through this duct super cold air of −20 to −40 degrees centigrade more or less (produced separately near the tower. The refrigeration plant supplied by others) This super cold air would be forced into the duct and be delivered through controlled vanes in the direction of the tornado flow. (Counter clockwise). When it will meet the hot and humid air coming in contact from the periphery in the adjacent area of the flow. As it will meet the hot and humid air it will causes instantaneous freezing of the vapors contained in the hot and humid air accomplishing 3 very important functions:

    • 1. By suddenly freezing of the vapors in the central zone, there would be an instantaneous drop of pressure in the center increasing the centripetal force. (FIGS. 3a # 2 and 3b #2, FIG. 4 # 3). This would be due to tremendous “inverse explosion”. While explosion is release of forces in outward direction while the inverse explosion is sucking in the forces inward. This pressure difference would causes a movement of the peripheral hot and humid air towards the center of the Tower and a corresponding increase in the velocity of the peripheral air to-wards the center increasing the centrifugal force and thus creating rotations in internally placed VAWT turbines.
    • 2. As the peripheral hot and humid air rushes to the center It creates a negative pressure at the longitudinal openings on the outside wall FIG. 1 # 6 and FIG. 4 # 4 causing a suction of the ambient air from out side enhancing the velocity and impingement of the air on the inner turbines working synergistically with the inner centrifugal air increasing the yield of the inner turbines.
    • 3. As the hot air from the periphery continues to move towards the center, it will also move upwards being hotter than the cold air and in doing so it will pull the hot air mass upwards like a pulling force for the hot air causing higher negative pressures at the base of tower providing more energy for the lower turbines at the bottom of the tower. It will enhance the production of electricity by the lower turbines placed in the base of the tower.

This phenomenon has not been described before and is a major innovation feature.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS:

FIG. 1. Can be used for publication. (page 10—drawing page 1 of 5)

System Overview.

    • #1. Cold air Input duct in the center of tower for delivery of super cold air
    • #2. Four to Six VAWT inner turbine units mounted on wing walls.
    • #3. Reinforced Concrete tower.
    • #4. and #10 Hot air input duct.
    • #5. 20 lower VAWT turbines axially placed. (Lower turbines)
    • #6. 4 Longitudinal outer openings in front the inner turbines
    • #11. Narrowing of the top of the tower to maintain the tornado.

FIG. 2. System cutaway and air flow diagram Page 11 (page 2 of 5)

    • #1. Four to Six VAWT inner turbines view from inside.
    • #2. Hot and humid air rising
    • #3. Rising of Hot and humid air causing low pressure on tower floor
    • #4 and #8 Hot air input duct.
    • #5. Incoming Ambient air
    • # 7. Humidifying Spray for geothermal energy

FIG. 3a. System cutaway with pressure zones page 12 (page 3 of 5)

    • #1. Peripheral high pressure
    • #2. Central Low pressure
    • #3. Bottom low pressure

FIG. 3b.

    • #1. High pressure hot and humid air
    • #2. Central cold low pressure similar to the anatomy of hurricanes.

FIG. 4 Top down View of the system page 13 (drawing page 4 of 5)

    • #1. Four to six mounted inner VAWT turbines from top view
    • #2. Peripheral hot and humid air high pressure centrifugal air
    • #3. Central low pressure cold air.
    • #4. Rhomboid longitudinal openings narrower inside & wider out side wall.
    • #5. Super cold air duct with directional flow vents.

FIG. 5 Overview view of double helix arrangement of the axial lower turbines.

FIG. 6a and b page 14 (drawing page 5 of 5)

    • #1. Outer opening
    • #2 Connecting duct between the out side opening and inside opening
    • #3. inner opening into the tower.

 DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION:

1. This invention will produce a Tornado like whirlwind, in a circular tower of 160 meters or more in diameter at the base with a vertical height of at least 180 meters or more with an opening at the open roof of less than 160 meters. This tower is structurally able to withstand internal negative pressures and is coated with inner lining to offer least friction to the whirlwind. The tower would be able to withstand the vibrations caused by the turbines and jet turbines. It will be able to sustain higher temperatures of up to 800 degree centigrade. Number of self monitoring devises to monitor pressures, temperatures, humidity, rate of rise of the air, speed of the turbines, electricity generation and other controls for the heat and water inflow will be installed in electronic as well as mechanical format making it a safe device. (FIG. 1)

2. In the bottom of #1 there will be 20 or more Vertical Axis Wind Turbines (VAWT) housed in the openings 20 meters away from the tower and connected to the Tower by a duct. These VAWTs will be 20 meters or more in diameter and hight and will be rated to produce 10 MW of electricity each. (Separately designed by the turbine manufacturers.) They would be housed in an opening that is 7-8 meters larger than the turbines themselves to provide mechanism preventing from choking in the tower during the startup as the pressure inside the tower may not be high enough to rotate the turbine. Inward air flow of the ambient air will be needed to prevent unacceptable build up of negative pressures by rising hot air at the same time to build up the whirlwind by providing ambient air in the initial stage. This larger opening will work as a safety valve that could be slowly closed to increase the efficiency of the turbines after they start rotating. These closing controls would placed at the outer opening. (FIG. 6b #1)

3. These axial lower turbines placed outside #1 are arranged in a Double Helix stair case orientation starting with number one at the ground level and each subsequent opening rising by 1 meter from the ground thus the 10th turbine would be 10 meters higher from the first one. The 11th turbine would start again at ground level while 9 others would be rising by 1 meter each to make a double helix stair case. (FIG. 5) Each inner opening is facing 5 degrees upwards to give it a kickstart for the rise of the air. By creating a spatial orientation of double helix on the out side #1 there will be a delivery of a band of air that is 40 meters wide inside the tower.(Inlet 30 meters high+last opening 10 meters high=40 meters). This wide band of air delivered in the tower will enable to uplift the air faster to create more negative pressure in the bottom of the tower. (FIG. 2 # 3).

4. Each opening for the axial turbines out side #1 will be connected to the tower via a duct of 30 meters or more in length. The inlet opening of the duct inside the tower is not less in surface area than the outer opening so that there is no obstruction of the incoming air at any point from the outer opening to the inner opening to allow obstruction free transfer of the ambient air from out side to inside the tower. Careful attention was paid to the geometry of the inlet to accomplish this because of an inherent problem of delivering air from an outside with bigger diameter to a inside smaller diameter. This was done to take advantage of Venturi Effect as long as the outer opening is less then the inner opening there will be maximum kinetic energy where the turbines are placed for maximum energy production. (FIG. 6b #1 is smaller than #2)

5. Each inner duct opening in the tower # 1 is directed upward from the bottom by 5 degree to facilitate the incoming air to move in an upward direction in the Tower to help create further negative pressure at the bottom of the tower.

6. The heat source to be introduced in #1 is from jet turbines exhaust taking advantage of the pressure generated in the Jet engine turbines.(Jet engine turbines with generators made by General Electric and others). (FIG. 1 # 4 and # 10, FIGS. 2 #4 and #8). Reject heat from a coal or nuclear plants can also be used.

7. #1 will also be supplied with geothermal energy for hot water fine sprays sprayed in the direction of tornado to increase the humidity and air temperature with in the tower FIG. 2 # 7 and from the inlet openings of the lower turbines. This is to increase the temperature and the humidity of the air.

8. As the hot air rises in the tower, it creates a negative pressure in the bottom of #1 and start sucking the ambient air through the inlet duct into the tower FIG. 2 # 6. Since this ambient air entry into the tower is eccentrically placed close to the outer wall of the tower it starts forming a tornado inside the tower. This incoming air would aid the upward rise of the tornado by increasing the volume and pushing the hot air further up. Special double helix orientation and upward angle of the inlets towards the sky will help creation of more negative pressure at the base.

9. The velocity of the wind entering in the tower could be controlled by controlling the heat supplied by the jet turbine/s effectively rather rapidly. When the hot air flow is stopped, the Tornado will cease to exist. There would be no need of controlling the air entry at the inlet opening inside the tower.

10. 4 to 6 additional VAWT turbines are placed inside the tower, close to the inside wall of #1 to the full height of the tower to utilize the centrifugal force of the circulating air in the tower. (FIG. 1 # 2, and FIG. 1 # 1) These turbines will produce additional net electricity. Some of the electricity would be used to produce super cold air mentioned in paragraph 12. (FIG. 1 # 1). Each inner turbines is equal to 5 outer turbines in area Sq/meter.

11. There will be 4 to 6 longitudinal openings of 1 meter wide (more or less) on the inner aspect of wall of #1 (FIG. 1 # 6)along the long axis of the tower and 3 meters wide on the out side the inner turbines. giving it a rhomboid appearance (FIG. 4 # 4). Due to Venturi Effect the velocity of the incoming air would be increased impinging on the blades of the inner turbine and working synergistically with the centrifugal force of the air circulating in the tower would enhance the rotation of the inner turbines.

12. In the center of the tower there is a 4 meter diameter duct (more or less) to deliver super cold air at −20 to −40 Degree Centigrade(More or Less) exiting though controlled vents in the direction of the Tornado. (FIG. 1 #1 and also FIG. 4 #3).

13. This super cold air circulating in the direction of inner tornado shall meet with the hot humid vapors and cause an instantaneous freezing of the vapors leading to a loss of volume of the vapors. This instantaneous freezing would cause a sudden inverse explosion (explosion is release of pressure outwardly while the inverse explosion is sucking the pressures inwardly) creating low pressure zone around the center of the tower. (FIG. 3 # 2)

14. This sudden drop of the pressure in the center of the tower would increase the centripetal force in center and would increase the motion of the peripheral hot and humid air towards the center. This movement of the air towards the center would increase the velocity of the circulating air and consequent increase in the centrifugal force providing increase in the energy for electricity production by six VAWT turbines placed inside the tower.

15. As the peripheral air would rush to center It would create a negative pressure at inside wall of the tower and would suck the air through the 4 to 6 longitudinal openings provided on the outside wall of the tower FIG. 4 #4 enhancing the speed of the air coming in and causing stronger impingement of the air on the inner turbines increasing the rotation of the inner turbines thus increasing the yield of the inner turbines.

16. As the peripheral hot and humid air is rushing to the center it would continue to rise because of adjacent cold air above the cold air causing a lift of the hot and humid air mass leading to an increased suction force at the bottom of the tower due to increase in the ascending motion of the rising hot and humid air mass.

Claims

1. The inventor claims to produce a tornado safely in a controlled fashion in a circular tower of 160 diameter (more or less) at the base with vertical height of 180 meters or more with an opening on the roof of less than 160 meters to generate electricity by the device. The desired power generation could be increased or decreased by making changes in various factors. The tower is made of reinforced concrete and cement and is structurally sound. It is designed to withstand internal negative pressures and is coated inside to offer least resistance to the circulating air. The tower is able to withstand the vibrations caused by the internal and external turbines. The tower would be able to sustain temperatures of up to 800 degree centigrade.

2. Device in claim 1 is equipped with self monitoring devices to monitor pressure, temperature, humidity, rate of rise of air, speed of turbines, electricity generation and other control valves for and water and heat to make it a safe operational device.

3. Device in claim 1 there are 20 or more axial turbines stationed 30 or more meters away from the wall and placed in a double helix orientation each opening facing 5 degrees up in the inner opening in claim 1. This arrangement is to augment the rise of the hot and humid air in #1.

4. Outer opening of the axial turbines around #1 are larger than the size of the turbines providing a safety inlet of the air to protect the tower while starting the tornado allowing air entry during the start up when the negative pressure may not be high enough to rotate the turbines as the speed of air in the forming tornado may not be enough initially. Once the velocity of the air is optimal and the axial turbines are rotating, than these larger openings can be slowly closed to increase the efficiency of the axial turbines while the velocity of the air and the negative pressure has built up for optimal operation of the turbines.

5. Connected to the wall of #1 would be the inner openings of the lower axial turbines in the base of #1. Inner openings of the turbines there are fine sprays of hot water derived from Geothermal well. That will increase the temperature and humidity of the circulating air in #1.

6. Hot air is directly introduced into #1 from exhaust of the jet turbines at high temperature and pressure to provide energy inside the tower. (FIG. 1 # 4 and # 10).

7. As the entering Hot air rises in #1 it will crate a negative pressure in the floor of #1 (FIG. 2 # 2 rising air # 3 causing low pressure). Ambient air would be sucked in a tangential fashion forming a tornado.

8. Inside #1, Four to Six additional VAWT turbines are placed close to the wall (FIG. 1 #2 and FIG. 2 # 1) They are 25 meters (more or less) in diameter and are more than 100 meters in height placed inside the tower to take advantage of centrifugal force of the circulating air to create additional energy. Fraction of this additional energy will be used to produce super cold air.

9. There are 4 to 6 longitudinal slits 1 meter wide (more or less) on the inner aspect of the wall of #1 and 3 meters wide on the out side wall FIG. 1 #6 making it a rhomboid shape FIG. 4 #4 allowing more ambient air to enter in the tower with increased velocity because of: When this air stream will impinge on the inner turbines, it will work synergistically with the centrifugal force of the air inside the tower and increase the rotation of the inner turbines.

a. Larger outer opening than inner opening advantage Venturi effect.
b. Due to negative pressure created by the rushing air to the center of #1.

10. In the center of # 1 (FIG. 1 #1 and FIG. 4 # 3 in top down view) there is a 4 meter (more or less) diameter duct to deliver super cold air at −20 to −40 degree centigrade (more or less) coming out in the direction of the tornado through controlled vanes. This cold air when comes in contact with hot and humid air causes instantaneous freezing of the hot vapors leading to a sudden “inverse explosion” and drop of the pressure around the center of the tower. Because of drop of this pressure there will be a rush of the peripheral air towards the center increasing the velocity of the peripheral hot and humid heavy air leading to increase of the centrifugal force for higher velocity and production of electricity from the inner turbines.

11. Because of the drop of pressure in the the center of #1 and rush of the air from periphery to the center, there will be a negative pressure created near the wall of #1 causing a suction of the ambient air through the longitudinal slits FIG. 1 # 6 and FIG. 4 # 4 increasing the velocity of the incoming air through these longitudinal openings impinging on the inner turbines working synergistically with the centrifugal winds inside the tower thus increasing the rotation of the inside turbines and enhancing energy production.

12. Super Cold air duct in # 1 will not only cause an increase in the centrifugal force and greater flow through the slits but would also cause a pulling force of the tornado in upward direction. As the hot and humid air gushes towards the center it will continue to climbs over the cold air while running to the center, lifting the hot air mass up and enhance the suction force in the base of the Tower (FIG. 2 #2 rising air and # 3 rising air causing low pressure) allowing to produce more electricity by lower turbines.

13. The hot and extremely humid air meeting super cold air in the center of #1 creating drop of the pressure in the center of #1 FIG. 3a #2 and consequently leading to increased centrifugal force in the peripheral air, causing negative pressure at the immediate area of the wall as well as higher suction force in the base of #1 has not been described before. This invention may have many applications in other fields. The foregoing description is illustrative of the principles of the invention. Numerous modifications and changes will readily occur to those skilled in the art. Since It is not desired to limit the invention to the exact description above, accordingly, all suitable modifications and equivalents may be resorted to, falling within the scope of the invention as claimed.

Patent History
Publication number: 20140284928
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 22, 2014
Publication Date: Sep 25, 2014
Applicant: RESEARCH ENERGY LLC. (IRON MOUNTAIN, MI)
Inventor: RAJESH C. MITAL (IRON MOUNTAIN, MI)
Application Number: 14/259,099
Classifications
Current U.S. Class: Turbogenerators (290/52)
International Classification: F01D 15/10 (20060101); F01D 1/04 (20060101);