Power plants – Pressure fluid source and motor – Pneumatic motor with gas supply or removal device
Patent
1994-11-29
1998-06-30
Nguyen, Hoang
Power plants
Pressure fluid source and motor
Pneumatic motor with gas supply or removal device
60595, 417381, F16D 3102, F04B 908
Patent
active
057716935
DESCRIPTION:
BRIEF SUMMARY
This invention relates to gas compressors for supplying compressed gas and in particular to compressors for supplying compressed air or other gas in gas turbine plants for the generation of electricity.
Compressors for producing hot compressed gas, such as air for burning with fuel in the combustion chamber of a gas turbine are well known. The gas produced by the compressor is heated as it is compressed by the adiabatic nature of the compression cycle. Because the gas is heated during compression, more energy is required to achieve the desired compression than if the temperature of the gas during compression was maintained constant, i.e. if the gas was compressed isothermally. It is also generally inefficient to use the mechanical energy of the compressor to heat the body of gas being compressed.
One example of a known apparatus designed to compress gas more efficiently is the hydraulic gas compressor in which gas is compressed in a downward moving column of liquid. The gas which is in the form of bubbles is cooled by the liquid during compression. The gas is then separated from the liquid at the bottom of the column where it is conveniently stored providing a supply of cool compressed gas which may subsequently be used for power generation.
A heat engine whose operation is based on the Carnot cycle is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,311. Isothermal compression of the working fluid in the cycle is achieved by spraying a liquid into the chamber containing the working fluid so that the temperature of the gas is maintained constant during compression. However, this apparatus relates to heat engines and consists of a closed cycle heat engine in which each volume of working fluid remains permanently within a respective chamber. It is not concerned with gas compressors, which supply compressed gas.
In conventional gas turbine plants the exhaust gas from the gas turbine is generally much hotter than the ambient temperature of the surrounding atmosphere so that the excess heat of the exhaust gas may be wasted unless it can be converted back into useful energy for example to generate electricity. In one particular type of gas turbine plant, the combined-cycle gas turbine and steam plant (CCGT), the excess heat in the exhaust gas from the gas turbine is converted into steam to drive a second turbine. Although the CCGT is efficient, it does require additional plant such as a heat recovery steam generator and an associated steam turbine.
According to one aspect of the present invention there is provided a gas compressor comprising a chamber to contain gas to be compressed, a piston in the chamber and means to drive the piston into the chamber to compress the gas, means to form a spray of liquid in the chamber to cool the gas on compression therein, and valve means to allow compressed gas to be drawn from the chamber, wherein said means to drive the piston comprises means to deliver driving energy stored in a fluid directly to the piston.
Thus, the invention provides a useful source of compressed gas, in which the gas temperature is controlled by the liquid spray. The heat of compression is transferred to the droplets in the spray so that during compression, the gas temperature may be controlled to remain constant or to decrease. If the temperature of the gas is held constant, the energy required for compression is much less than it is if the temperature is allowed to rise. Advantageously, the piston is driven directly by the energy stored in a fluid, which may be the energy stored in a compressed gas or a combustible fuel/air mixture or the potential energy of a liquid. This enables the isothermal compression to be driven directly from a very high temperature heat source, while heat in the system is rejected at the lowest temperatures in the cycle. The piston enables large energies released from the fluid to be very efficiently converted into compression energy of the gas, and provides the opportunity of temporarily storing the energy released from the fluid as kinetic energy in such a way that large energies can be
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National Power PLC
Nguyen Hoang
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