Hello tauko, I had never heard of that type of pump and the concept of a liquid piston in engines - interesting! What is the purpose of the horizontal u-shaped water bath on your 3D drawing? If I understand the mechanism correctly this would have to be closed to the environment, no? Stefan
In general, the piece of "play tube" ( as it was named in Humprey 's patent) must have definite length . To save space, the tube is bent in U-form . The idea of the pump is to use the inertia of mooving water.Original pump has suction valves near the water level. I have disconnected the liquid piston from environment. In this case we must cool the engine somehow. It is still cooled but indirectly
Very cool, I think there's an immense amount of benefit in revisiting some of these older technologies. Any idea of how it will perform in terms of power?
In the task list the needed power is set as 1-3 kW. There is no problem to make "portable" gasifier for this power. Just after WW2 a lot of trucks for farmers were equipped with similar gasifiers. I guess one "charge " of the gasifier will be enough to pump out the water from the well in a couple of hours. Then you have to refill the gasifier. The ashes will be used as fertiliser in the same field. Solution is not "old fashion" if it solves the problem within declared limits.
Very true Tauko, a solution is not old fashion if it solves the problem, but it´s actually latest discovery if it`s adapted to the site problems.
I have modified the old idea in order to : 1/ to make it transportable; 2/ to increase suction / All previous models were huge machines on concrete bases. This is my contribution-).
here is a link to the old pump design: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/eb/Humphreygaspump,planandelevation(RankinKennedy,ModernEngines,Vol_V).jpg
I like this. It's a variation on the atmospheric steam engines used in the 1800's pumping water out of mines in the US. Watt's atmospheric steam pumps were barn size though.
Well if you're going to use internal combustion, perhaps a more straight forward engine could be used - say a modified diesel ?
The idea of liquid piston helps to get rid of the most wearable internal combustion motor's parts like metal pistons, crank shafts, bearings, etc. For local maintenance this seems to be very important.
OK! Tata Nano costs 2500USD. I am sure tha offered pump is more simple and cheaper -)
I don't think I'll have time to participate in this event, but I did want to suggest looking more closely at the pump itself. The key to making this project work I do not think is in the solar panels as much as it is in finding a new and more efficient way to pump water. Allow me to make a suggestion via a question: "How do trees pump water to great heights?" I think the answer to creating the most efficient pump lies in nature. What I have seen is that a large diameter pipe makes lifting the water very difficult. Trees do not use one large pipe to transport water upward. So maybe many small tubes would be more efficient if you did not try to draw from them all at the same time. Picture a spinning disc with only one hole that passes over several small tubes exposing the opening of each tube individually. This would mean less suction would be required to lift water up each tube since each tube is lifting less weight. Subsequently, a less powerful pump could perform the same lifting capability using numerous smaller tubes rather than one big tube. Hope the idea helps inspire you. Best of luck!
THIS LOOKS GREAT!!! MAYBE A BIT HEAVY BUT IT HAS WHEEL!!! IF IT'S EASY TO CARRY THIS IS GREAT!!! AND OF COURSE IF IT PUMPS!!! :)
Hey tauko, We have not heard from you in a while. Are you still working on your submission? If so, could you provide more details on the flow your expect, costing and the kind of biomass you suggest to be gasified? Thank you, Stefan
I looked up the Wikipedia entry for this pump and it mentioned that this is a four stroke Internal Combustion System. With that I lost interest completely. OK, I am extremely partial to non-polluting, renewable energy solutions. If India (and China) embrace CO2 producing solutions (even small ones) in a large scale (think millions), the world would be screwed!
Nice idea, it might become too heavy to pull with the watter and bio mass, have u checked the weight
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