compressor? Say we use air, for simplicity and to avoid polluting. We use a large sealed cylinder (several meters wide?), and water is the piston. A wave swells up, it compresses air inside at the top. A relief valve lets the air out to a heat exchanger (submerged in ocean water, so it is both power source and heat sink.) Compressed air leaves heat exchanger cooler and goes through another heat exchanger in a space to be cooled. Air picks up heat and returns to bottom of the cylinder; it bubbles up through water to the top, to be compressed again. A poppet valve keeps water from flowing back into air tubing; the water forms a seal around the tube rising into the cylinder. This is similar to (unliquified) gas storage tanks.
We need chains/cables attached to a floating platform the system is built on, so that as tide rises and lowers daily, the throw of the piston (rise of the wave swell) stays about the same.
Feasible? How efficient? Suggestions? Thanks for all serious answers!
2007-05-31
17:32:15
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5 answers
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asked by
cdf-rom
7