Upcycle or Recycle: What Would You Build?

Well if I had a steam locomotive engine, and some wooded acreage, I might use it to generate power for some outrageous display I would build if I was rich and eccentric....but more likely break it down and sell it for scrap, or make some sculptures out of the pieces, and sell them to the tourists art lovers...

Good lord.. where's an extra few $$ when the price is right?!

They should have contacted me.. or the buyer of the equipment should..

I have big plans for that very equipment. Plans I've been beaten up about, but big plans none the less.

Anyone interested needs an NDA so we can discuss.

...Is that upcycling, recycling, or neither?

Time to go full scale.

I've done away with the need for linear electric generation. Just need the stroke of power. done

Yeah but isn't this in Australia? You know in the downunderworld....looks pretty heavy too....

Weighs 9000 kg if you read the blurb attached which makes shipping to USA around $4500 USD

i think at least half of the wave generator designs I have seen are absolute garbage and should have never had one cent wasted on them .

reading the company website for this one and I think it should be viable , however what is the real efficiency compared to hydroelectric ?

Well, nothing beats hydroelectric....but you need a suitable source...If we could supply all of our electric from hydroelectric, that would be great...

I recall reading recently that the US are shutting down and demolishing many hydro dams .

why ?

Does the US nuclear industry have enough lobbying influence to sell its more expensive power plants or is there a better explanation behind it ?

Well I did read where there are certain groups who think that beavers manage the water better for environmental purposes....I'm sure there are a lot of people that don't agree....but as far as a trend in dam demolishing, I don't think that will even happen at the very least because of flood control benefits they provide...

...."the construction and operation of dams has already had greater hydrologic and ecologic impacts on American rivers than any changes that might reasonably be expected from global climate changes in the near future. The dam building era is over, but in many water resource regions, downstream hydrologic and ecologic effects of dams are now becoming apparent because the maximum reservoir storage has only been in place two to three decades. The widespread and intensive nature of the effects of these structures suggests that they also offer means of mitigating some hydrologic impacts, if not through retirement of dams, through changes in their operating rules."...

https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1029/1999WR900016

If you were going to build a linear wave power converter what would the design brief need to consider ?

what is the wave data for your chosen area ? What typical wave amplitude and timing between sets ?

the stroke of the hydraulic rams is stated as 1800 mm , so if for example you had wave amplitudes of 2 meters then you would need a non direct connection between your buoy and the ram , if you used a 2:1 fulcrum then you have typical stroke on the ram of 1 meter and you increase force on the hydraulic piston by a factor of 2 x.

next issue , what is the hydraulic system working pressure and area of the hydraulic piston , working out the force required to meet the hydraulic force required plus efficiency factor will tell you what size buoy is required to supply the necessary force on the ram.

the buoy has to be capable of displacing force in excess of its own mass plus the mass of the fulcrum , mass of the hydraulic cylinder rod and piston plus the force of meeting hydraulic force acting on the piston.

you would also need to allow for inertia losses due to the mass of the buoy itself so maybe you would build the buoy from marine aluminium .

you also need to create a system to raise the kinetic parts out of the ocean when storms occur.

edited ** forgot to include - what is actual hydraulic flow rate required to operate the unit at its continuous 250 kW capacity .

and how do you shed excess hydraulic power on days when waves exceed required power ?

would you divert output to a load bank , storage battery or just divert excess flow via a relief bypass so it goes back to tank ?

There is a spec sheet for the components on that listing.

the hydraulic drive motor is variable displacement 0-500 cc which opens up huge options for the hydraulic flow rate into the unit.

you could control motor displacement by PLC to optimise RPM of the alternator regardless of variations / surges in hydraulic flow.

combine that with the inverter drive package and you could probably input anywhere from 200 - 500 VAC into the inverter , spit it through the DC BUS to the second module to get grid quality stabilised AC voltage at whatever suits your grid whether it be 50 or 60 Hz , it’s selectable in the programming of the output module.

what I don’t see mentioned anywhere is a grid feed anti-islanding module which is a legal requirement in every country.

The price it’s at has me stuffed , I know it’s a niche market that the average Joe can’t play with but a rough count of components in that picture would be around $1.5 million just for the major components.

I like your thoughts.

There might be others but I like the look of this one , wind plus wave and my back of envelope numbers based on the area of the wave buoys would guesstimate 1.5 - 2.5 megawatts from the waves and 1.2 - 2 megawatts from wind.

i hope they succeed.

edited from above ,** they can deliver 5 mW wind and 3.6 mW from wave.

http://www.floatingpowerplant.com/products/

only mass production to keep costs down , and concentrated wind / wave farms can bring the returns to viable levels.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=NjmvXSmq_Rc

We inspected this last week . it is bigger than it looks in the photos and there are pallet loads more parts the photos dont show.

Its got me beat why there is no bidding interest . Our cash offer to buy before end of auction was "rejected"

That design in the link you posted is pretty sexy but intellectual property patents mean that any design for the "wet end" of this has to be unique.

You would be on the money there except you generally dont factor in the hydraulic motor operating below around half displacement as the torque would fall off too fast.

The anti-islanding module would be built in to the land based power substation as the last stage before Grid.

These guys had their factory about 5 km from ours , i used to drive past it every day and had no idea what was inside :(

I just wish i had a spare half million and the connections with government to get it all through the regulatory processes.

I have read and actually understand your questions. And while they all apply in my case. My disruptive proposal is more hypothesis (working)at the time. I look forward to to working on my backyard scaled down version with parts 1/250th of what's shown.

If I had a barn of money I could take some out and put this in.

Keep refining your design then seek funding.

Australia and many European govts have been offering around $ 500 - 600 million each for renewables development.

the US govt put up $ 24 million in 2017 for renewables grants ~ some people are heavily weighted in the oil sector ?

Maybe use for suspension on ⇓

I would take the two hydraulic linear motion converters and use them to produce artificial waves at some land-locked lake or a water park, then figure a way to independently spin that 250kW generator to produce power for the wave generator and sell the excess to the grid. A bargain at !0,000USD delivered, plus engineering and site prep costs of course!

At 80 - 88% efficiency you would pay $250,000 a year for power to get a return of $200,000 ?

cheaper to just pay 10 kids to sit at the edge of the pool and splash their feet in the water..

Because for profit water parks easily gross 20 times the energy costs that go in to powering their infrastructure, it's known as an "operating expense"; i.e., every dollar spent powering the equipment generates about $20 in ticket revenue. Seems like a much better return than putting your money in a CD.