“AirHES”, a possibility to independently obtain cheap & green electricity

[aruseni]

There’s a scientific project called “AirHES”. Briefly speaking, it could (theoretically) allow individuals (pretty much everyone) to run their own little electric stations to obtain cheap and green electricity (such power plants are claimed to be very effective, affordable and eco-friendly — i.e. no CO₂ emissions, etc). Besides electrical power, such plant would also provide clean drinking water, so it can be extremely desirable to have it in places where fresh water is a problem (according to Wikipedia, 780 million people in developing countries lack access to clean water). Such stations may be even built to be used as a mobile power (and water) source, which is a great opportunity for boats.

The invention is described in detail on it’s web site: airhes.com.

In practice, the inventor still hasn’t raised any money to run all the necessary experiments to prove that everything works well (having the rest of the work done & building a test device would cost about 100k dollars). He’s in search of an investor, but so far he hasnt’t made a deal with anybody (seems like no one is willing to take the risk of possible failure, even though the gainings in case of success are extremely big).

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[Jcw188]

No investors?  Makes me think this thing is a long way off or even can't really be done. I was reading about an apparatus that let's humans breathe underwater...the article treated it like it wa a real thing but it wasn't.

[Ekaros]

I don't exactly think that one is feasible...

Essentially they are proposing to place platforms in air at 2-5km heights, gather rain/moisture and run it to ground in pipe...

[BurtW]

Hmm.  Interesting.  Need to do some calculations when I get the time...

[Ekaros]

Hmm.  Interesting.  Need to do some calculations when I get the time...

Know anything about hydrodynamics? 200m/s flow in 3mm pipe seems bit questinable to me...

[bryant.coleman]

OK... to start with, the capital expenses are around $100,000 (who knows? might be even higher). And add to that the annual maintenance charges, likely to run in to several tens of thousands of USD. Not even people in the developed world will be able to afford these systems.

[aruseni]

Well, the calculated cost per kW is from $1 to $250, depending on the type of fog collector the calculations are based on and the location on Earth.

It is a lot cheaper than the electricity we have today: for instance, $5000 per kW for nuclear power plants or $1500 per kW for TPP.

[stompix]

The airship 6 lifts the surfaces 5 at the height of near or above the dew point (condensation level by ARL sounding, base of clouds) for current atmospheric conditions (typically 2-3 km). There supercooled atmospheric moisture begins to condense (or collect LWC from clouds) on the surfaces 5. The drainage system on the surfaces 5 assigns the water in a small reservoir (upstream 2), where water under pressure from whole hydraulic head (2-3 km) flows through the penstock or conduit 3 to the downstream 1 on the ground, producing electricity in the turbo generator 4.

So he is going to send an airship floating in the sky at 2-3 km to collect moisture?
And how is he going to send the water down as I hope not it's through a pipe!

Also , did he factor in the cost of having the airship fly at that height?
Probably not cause:
The specific capital costs is $ 500/kW.
The operational costs is close to zero.

[Wilikon]

Stupid question: what would be the total weight of that piping system?

[Wilikon]

...not including the water flow inside.

[Spendulus]

Hmm.  Interesting.  Need to do some calculations when I get the time...

Know anything about hydrodynamics? 200m/s flow in 3mm pipe seems bit questinable to me...

200 m/s is half the speed of sound.  That flow rate would not be achieved with a gas moving through a 3mm tube, let alone a liquid.

Best as I recall 3mm was well within the laminar flow boundary for something like water and slick pipe, so although he can get a pressure head when the pipe is completely filled, he can't get velocity.  But velocity would be of interest only at the output orifice on earth.  So laminar flow (friction) would simply act as a stopgate on total throughput, whether primary drive (water) or electricity (output).

It's easy enough to test this, just get a section of 1/8 ID (3mm) tubing suspend a bucket in the air, set a siphon effect going and look at the flow rate.

The other method would be to generate superheated steam on the airship, send it down the pipe and run a turbine directly.  But there would be no pressure head on the gas to speak of.

[Snail2]

The maintenance cost for such a solution would be a bit high. In addition you can't use this everywhere because of the air traffic. BTW in remote places can be useful especially because of you can use the "airships" as communication platforms for example.