Hydraulic prime mover device

Abstract

The invention described herein is a new and novel prime mover device which operates as in integral component of a heat vapor cycle which, in combination, represents a heat engine system consisting of a closed, vertically oriented fluid recirculation system, utilizing a non-compressible fluid as a working medium. Wherein the device's fluid downward flowing section comprises a fluid penstock and a hydraulic turbine, whose function is the conversion of the downward flowing fluid's potential energy into kinetical energy and then into mechanical energy by driving the turbine which, in turn, drives the electrical generator. Whereas the device's upward flowing section serves the function of lifting the turbine exhausted fluid back to its initial potential, which is accomplished by the heating of the turbine exhausted fluid and its maintenance at operating temperature, in combination with induction of a cooled, condensed gas into the heated fluid at the device's lowermost effective portion which, by virtue of its heat absorption from the fluid, as well as its evaporation and subsequent expansion therein, displaces an equivalent amount of fluid within the device's vertical riser, thus giving rise to the lowering of the fluid's specific gravity within the device's upward flowing section, in contrast to the fluid's specific gravity within its downward flowing section. This causes the fluid to circulate as long as a steady supply of thermal energy, as well as a steady flow of cooled gas, is available. The gas, upon heating and expansion, is separated from the fluid, then cooled and condensed to initial state.