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Person-Portable Micro-Hydropower System
Navy SBIR FY2011.2
| Sol No.: |
Navy SBIR FY2011.2 |
| Topic No.: |
N112-147 |
| Topic Title: |
Person-Portable Micro-Hydropower System |
| Proposal No.: |
N112-147-0800 |
| Firm: |
Trex Enterprises Corporation
10455 Pacific Center Court
San Diego, California 92121 |
| Contact: |
Dee Symonds |
| Phone: |
(808) 646-9145 |
| Web Site: |
www.trexenterprises.com |
| Abstract: |
Limited fuel availability and high fuel transport costs in off-grid regions prohibit the utility and practicality of petroleum-fuel based generators for electricity production. At the same time, flowing water resources are typically available that can be leveraged to implement micro-hydropower systems in these regions. Currently, there is a need for the development of a complete small, inexpensive low-maintenance hydropower solution that optimizes transportability, enables rapid deployment, minimizes cost, and maximizes power generation in a wide range of flow environments. Trex Enterprises Corporation proposes to design and develop a compact, micro-hydropower system capable of extracting available hydrokinetic flow energy and converting this energy into usable power. The Trex micro-hydropower design is based on a modified, Gorlov turbine that can be harvests energy perpendicular to the flow direction. The non-ducted turbine design enables energy capture over variable free flow environments, including utility even in low-velocity and ultra low-head environments. A contactless high-torque transmission system enables actuation of the permanent magnet alternator by the rotor across a sealed interface, and so completely seals onboard electronics from the operating environment. The transmission system also corrects for shaft misalignment and inhibits transmission of vibration to the power take off system. |
| Benefits: |
Extracting power from free flow and ultra low head (potential) water streams cheaply will increase the adoption of micro-hydropower as a viable distributed renewable energy solution in previously untapped environments;
There's an increasingly large market for cheap micro and picohydro power to provide basic power for remote villages and rural communities in the developing world, primarily in Southeast Asia;
The simplicity and modularity of the design can be easily scaled to meet power requirements of larger communities in a variety of operational environments;
This system has dual-use applications both remote civilian and military off-frid applications where flowing water is present, and can be used as a turn-key, rapidly-deployable solution in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief operations by non-governmental organizations, military, and civilian governments;
The harvesters high power density , small form factor, and use of commercially-available subcomponents make it a practical, cost-effective solution that can be easily transported and rapidly fielded in temporary, semi-permanent or permanent deployment scenarios, as well as practically integrated with no significant impact to existing autonomous systems (i.e. plug-n-play power).
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