PROTOTYPE PROGRESS
Please Read About Our Prototype Progress
In 2009 a fair amount of research was completed concerning the operation of (ORC's) Organic Rankin Cycles and how to implement them with a water to water ground source heat pump. We found that in the process of extracting heat from fluid/water with a ground source heat pump that two different temperatures sources could be obtained. With these two different temperatures we felt that we could expand and condense a refrigerant in a closed loop creating a pressure differential to rotate a turbine.
In December 2009 we were able to study a waste heat ORC electrical generator system that was manufactured to be connected to existing boiler systems and generator exhaust systems and generate electricity from this waste heat. We found that other systems are designed in the same manner, although each system has their own version of a turbine. Typically, waste heat would flow through a heat exchanger in an open loop and a cool condensing flow of water would then need to flow through another heat exchanger in another open loop to operate the ORC. Through this process of heating and condensing the closed ORC with heat exchangers, a refrigerant could be used as energy to rotate a turbine connected to an electrical generator.
Because Keith Johnson has an extensive background installing ground source heating and cooling systems as well as complex electrical systems, he was able to design a hybrid ORC/ground source system and write a patent description. This patent was filed early in 2010 after a patent search found no competing systems, when compared to the ThermalGen/Thermal Loop System.
Due to the fact that Troy Richardson owns and operates a machine shop, it was both a convenient and practical place for us to build the ThermalGen Prototype. We began building this prototype in February 2010 on a large metal frame with a two ton (24000 Btu) water to water heat pump, two 120 gallon tanks, a 3,000 watt permanent magnet Dc generator, 4400 watt DC to AC inverter, charge controller, batteries and various pumps to name a few components.
Once the water to water heat pump and tanks were wired and plumbed, we conducted tests to see what temperature differentials we could achieve efficiently, when moving the heat out of one 120 gallon tank at a temperature beginning at 55 degrees F. to a second 120 gallon tank also starting at 55 degrees F. While moving this heat we found that the cold tank would approach freezing well before the hot tank reached a desired temperature of 108 degrees. We added heat to the cold tanks with a couple of portable heaters to keep the cold tank water from freezing. This worked until the temperature in the hot tank reached 108 degrees F. and the temperature in the cold tank was allowed to reach 36 degrees F. Once both desired temperatures were satisfied, we found that we could manipulate the tank temperatures with a thermostat operating the desuperheater function within the water to water heat pump.
Once we were able to control heating and cooling the two tanks, we were ready to install our ORC system with a modified air turbine, three heat exchangers, a primary pump, various valves, temperature/pressure gauges and piping. We coupled a permanent magnet DC generator to our modified turbine and used a drill set at three hundred RPM to move a refrigerant through the loop. We were astonished on our first try to reach a speed of over 2,000 RPM from our turbine/generator with a pump speed of only 300 RPM and we knew we had something special.
Over a period of a couple of months, tests would help us to understand how to increase pressure and turbine speed. We knew that the weakness in our system was our modified air turbine. We began searching for solutions and found nothing off the shelf that would work better then what we had. In May 2009 Keith was searching for turbines on the internet and found Power Verde Energy. Their turbine appeared to be just what we needed to have a complete system. Keith and Troy arranged to meet with Power Verde Energy in Phoenix Arizona and met with them in May. They reviewed our system and we both felt that a relationship between Endless Energy and Power Verde would be a great benefit.