SOUTHWEST SCIENCES INC — Department of Energy STTR Phase II: 27a

Description

There is a considerable amount of available, but generally unused energy in rivers, streams and man-made channels, particularly at very low heads of less than 10’. Unfortunately, this resource is disseminated across thousands of locations, each with different head, flow, and site conditions. An affordable technical solution is needed to allow the widespread exploitation of this clean, renewable energy asset. E-Motors’ vision to lower cost is to 1) use additive manufacturing (also called 3D printing) to design river-specific, high-efficiency, low-cost hydro turbines; and 2) integrate the electrical generator with the turbine. The combined unit, so-called rim drive, can be easily manufactured and delivered on site for simple assembly and implementation. During Phase I, an experimental turbine with a rim drive was designed and tested at a 3” scale in a laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee. This system, as well as an 80kW unit in the commercialization power range, were designed by advanced computer methods to obtain high efficiencies. A number of ideas were investigated concerning the water intake and draft tube designs, which could also be 3D printed for low cost and site customization. During Phase II, a fully functional commercialization-ready integrated rim drive system will be developed and tested. This includes an electrical generation unit with controls devised to extract the maximum power possible from the water; improved turbine designs with integrated intake and draft tubes custom designed from 3D printing; and, finalization of the computational tools and materials, processes and finishes available from additive manufacturing. This modular, scalable turbine/generator system is an important stepping stone towards obtaining the level of cost per kWh of energy that will make small hydro power available for harvest on an economical scale. The system, further refined in Phase II, is expected to be aimed first at man-made systems (water conveyance plants, water-intensive industries) as well as smaller dams in need of refurbishing. Addressing these markets first will provide the economies of scale needed to further expand into very-low head sites across the board.