Process for maximizing speed of marine vessels propelled by natural renewable energy by managing the harvesting, storage and re-use of natural energy
A marine vessel can be propelled by using wind or solar energy. This propulsion results in the forward movement and six degrees of motion (roll, heave, pitch, yaw, surge, and sway) of the marine vessel. This invention capitalizes on the fact that solar, wind and wave energy are cyclical by nature. The present invention enables the vessel to manage stored and harvested energy from these energy sources and use the stored energy during periods when the external natural sources of energy are not available in adequate quantities to maintain a reasonable speed of advance for the marine vessel. The vessel's natural energy management system (NEMS) manages it in such a way that harvesting of the energy during high energy cycles, storing it and using it when needed during low external energy cycles, allows a marine vessel to maintain faster average speed without reliance on any fossil or chemical fuel and by only using renewable energy sources.
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STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENTNot Applicable
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REFERENCES CITED
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Embodiments of the present invention relate to maximizing the speed of marine vessels propelled by natural energy. The invention manages the marine vessel's energy collection and spending processes to harvest and store natural energy and expend it in a managed process to attain maximized speed over a course and provide unlimited autonomy. This harvesting, storing and expending energy management process uses energy gathered from the sun, the wind, and the movement of the vessel.
2. Relevant BackgroundMarine vessels have sailed using the wind as the primary source of energy longer than written history has been recorded. However, the management of harvested and stored natural energy captured from the forward motion of the vessel, solar panels and kinetic energy from six degree of freedom motions of the vessel for the purpose of increasing the vessels speed over a course is a new concept. Similarly, solar panels have been used to generate and store energy for a variety of land based and marine applications but the inclusion of these in this energy management process is also a new concept. The vessel, when moving forward in waves, picks up six degree of freedom motions. These are called Pitch, Roll, Yaw, Surge, Sway and Heave. These motions, or excitations, of the vessel from the waves impart energy into the marine vessel's hull. Devices have been developed to recover some of this energy from such movements to generate power, however, the channeling and management of this energy for the purpose of harvesting, storing and using it to increase the speed of the vessel has not been done before. Marine vessels, whose forward movement is propelled by the wind, use heavy dense material as ballast in the bottom of the vessel to maintain the stability of the vessel as the forces from the sails threaten to overturn the vessel. Historically, lead cannon shots and other dense weight materials such as concrete with iron in it have been used to keep such vessels upright and stable. This is called “ballast”. Excessive ballast allows maximum sail area to provide maximum propulsion energy from wind of this nature making the marine vessel heavier and reducing its cargo carrying capacity. Marine vessels can also use heavy electrical energy storage devices, such as energy storing batteries, in lieu of ballast, which allows for more stability and allows the vessel to use maximum wind energy as it stays safely upright. This same ballast which also functions to store properly managed energy to increase the speed of the vessel over a long distance in conjunction with the natural energy management system is a new concept.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTIONThe present invention is a method for managing the harvesting of nature's wind, wave and solar energy into electrical power on a marine vessel for storage onboard and use when the propulsion power from external natural energy cycles is low. This invention capitalizes on the fact that availability of solar, wind, and wave energy are time-cyclical in nature. The management process in this invention uses the harvested and stored energy to enhance the marine vessel's propulsion speed during cycles when external natural energy sources are not adequately available, with the ultimate result that the average speed of the vessel over a voyage is maximized. The invention depends on the technical fact that the speed versus power curve of a marine vessel is much steeper at the higher speed range and flatter at the lower speed range (see
The object of the invention is to apply a natural energy management system (NEMS) to provide maximized propulsion speed to marine vessels by the combined use of naturally available energy and the use of harvested, stored and expended energy. This energy is harvested and stored during high external energy time-cycles (whether from wind, sun, or waves) and expended during low external energy time-cycles. The vessel may be a commercial marine transport vessel, a pleasure yacht, a research vessel, or autonomous surface or submarine vessel used by Naval Forces. Such a vessel can be propelled without the use of any fossil, chemical or radioactive fuel, while maintaining maximum possible speed over a long voyage. Energy is harvested from the wind, sun, or the motion of the vessel as means of propelling the vessel and a means of harvesting and storing some of the energy, properly managed and controlled by the process which is the heart of this invention. This process permits the creation of a zero-emission marine vessel with unlimited endurance and a commercially acceptable speed of advance. For naval autonomous vessels, such an invention extends the endurance.
- 1 Disc attached on the top of each rotor
- 2 Flettner rotors (which act as mechanical ‘sails’)
- 3 Solar panels
- 4 Hull
- 5 Regenerative propellers
- 6 Battery bank
- 7 Electric motor/generator
- 8 Water flow causing power generation to charge batteries
- 9 Energy harvest storage rate
- 10 Stored energy depletion rate supplementing speed
- 11 Canvas or foil sail
- 12 Flettner electric motor
- 13 Speed gain from use of stored energy
- 14 Speed loss in energy harvest mode
- 15 Magnetic levitation of rotors to reduce friction
In more detail, still referring to the invention of
The regenerative propellers 5 can be propulsion thrusters such as Rim Driven Thrusters which do not have hubs or axial shafts at the center which help reduce additional drag either in driving or in driven mode or other types of propellers that can act as turbines in the regeneration mode. The regenerative propellers 5 work like turbines when placed in a stream of water. The forward motion of the marine vessel's hull 4 with respect to the water creates the said stream of water, thus driving a propulsion device in a hydraulic energy gathering mode such as the regenerative propeller 5 which produces electricity. A standard propeller properly designed for such function on a common sailboat
In the example of
In more detail, referring to the application of this invention in
The forward motion of the marine vessel's hull 4 allows the water to flow 8 through the energy harvesting regenerative propellers 5 causing them to rotate and drive the motor in a generation mode to produce electricity. The electrical energy produced by the regenerative propellers 5 and the solar panels 3 is collected by the natural energy management system (NEMS) and is fed back to the battery bank 6.
Referring to the invention in
Excess electric energy produced is directed to a natural energy management system (NEMS) which then stores it in a battery bank 6 located at the lowest space of the hull
Also,
While the foregoing written description of the invention enables one of ordinary skill to make and use what is considered presently to be the best mode thereof, those of ordinary skill will understand and appreciate the existence of variations, combinations, and equivalents of the specific embodiment, method, and examples herein. The invention should therefore not be limited by the above described embodiment, method, and examples, but by all embodiments and methods within the scope and spirit of the invention.
Claims
1. A process or method where an improved marine vessel is comprised of;
- a floating structure which has at least one energy capturing device;
- a motor/generator that acts as a propeller to propel and as a regenerative device to harvest energy;
- an energy storage device to serve as a storage bank that could be used when external energy sources such as wind and solar are not at peak;
- an energy management and control system that monitors and controls energy production, storage and expenditure to maximize the vessel speed over the range;
- whereby said marine vessel uses said technologies and processes integrated to create a zero emission, zero fossil or chemical fueled marine vessel which has an improved speed, where the speed over a long course is significantly increased exploiting the cyclical availability of external wind and solar energy. During high wind and solar energy cycles, significant energy is harvested at a minor compromise to vessel speed and during low wind and solar energy cycles the system expends the harvested energy to significantly increase the average speed over the course. When this happens, relatively little energy is expended to gain a significant increase in speed and distance. This is possible by applying the speed/power characteristics of marine vessel by exploiting the marine engineering principles which allows the use of available energy harvested from external sources more effectively and thus increasing the speed of the vessel.
2. A process involving marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said marine vessel's propulsion system can harvest wind energy through the motor generator from the forward motion of the vessel, store it and use it to increase average vessel speed when winds are not as favorable.
3. A process involving marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said marine vessel uses six degrees of freedom motion in the water (pitch, roll, yaw, heave, surge and sway) to harvest energy using a mechanism that converts the rolling, pitching, etc. motion of the marine craft into energy.
4. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said marine vessel system uses Rim Driven Thrusters or propellers to harvest energy from the water on which it moves as well as propel the marine vessel.
5. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said system combines a low resistance hull form like a fine single or multihull vessel, super slender, or planning hull form with a wind energy harvesting, storage and regenerative propulsion system to create a higher speed, longer range marine vessel which can make faster speeds without reliance on of fossil or chemical fuels.
6. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, combines harvested wind and solar energy for storage on board a marine vessel for re-use when wind and sun cycles have low energy yield.
7. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said vessel uses an energy management and control system which optimizes the energy harvesting process on a marine vessel.
8. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said vessel has a management and control system which optimizes the Flettner rotor rotational speed on a marine vessel to exploit maximum wind energy usage to gain maximum vessel speed and maximize energy harvesting by changing the rotor speed automatically to optimize wind usage.
9. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said vessel has a management and control system which can use multiple Flettner rotors to change the direction of a marine vessel, by rotating different rotors at different rotational speeds and in different directions.
10. A process in which a marine vessel of claim 1, wherein said vessel has a method of applying energy harvested by autonomous naval surface or underwater vehicles to extend its autonomy using the principles in this invention.
Type: Application
Filed: Apr 5, 2019
Publication Date: Jul 30, 2020
Inventor: Anil Raj (New Orleans, LA)
Application Number: 16/376,141