Turbine Engine
Patent Number: US 9523277 Grant Date: 2016-12-20 Filing Date: 2008-10-29
Overview
This patent describes a highly flexible turbine architecture that routes multiple fluids and fluid conditions through shaft and non-shaft passageways into nozzle-equipped rotor surfaces, enabling multi-phase, multi-substance, multi-pressure and multi-stage operation. Filed in December 2005 and granted in December 2016, the specification supports bladeless (no-blade) nozzle-driven rotors that accept liquids, vapors, mixtures or reactants at different pressures and temperatures, and recover energy from feed, bypass and waste streams without requiring conventional inlet separation. Inventors based in Paris, TX developed the core concept; the applicant is based in Paris, TX and the assignee is RECOGEN, LLC (Amarillo, TX). The claims and detailed embodiments show extensive control of chamber pressures, staged compounding (axial and radial), and integrated heat-exchange/condensing options to tailor the split between mechanical output and useful thermal energy. The drafting anticipates use cases from geothermal and waste-heat streams to combined-cycle and combustion turbine installations, and incorporates balancing, sealing and modular rotor-section strategies to simplify manufacture and maintenance. The firm’s prosecution and drafting demonstrate technical depth and careful claim scaffolding to cover both shaft and non-shaft feed architectures and multi-fluid combustion/nozzle combinations.
Key Features
- Multi-fluid inlet routing (shaft and non-shaft) for liquids, vapors, and two‑phase flows
- Bladeless nozzle-equipped rotors with staged pressure- and velocity-compounding
- Integrated chamber control and internal/external condensing for thermal recovery
- Modular rotor/shaft sections for scalable manufacture and retrofit
This invention expands practical options for distributed power, geothermal recovery and flexible combined-cycle systems, enabling higher system efficiency and broader use of previously wasted process streams.
Invention Details
Abstract: A multiple-fluid, multiple-substance, multiple-phase, multiple-pressure, multiple-temperature, multiple-stage turbine engine. In preferred embodiments, one or more fluids are supplied by passageways in the turbine shaft or supplied by non-shaft passageways, or both, through rotor passageways to multiple-phase, multiple-fluid, multiple-substance nozzles affixed to one or more perimeters, radial surfaces, axial surfaces, and/or curved or slanted surfaces of the turbine rotor assemblies. The multiple perimeters, radial surfaces, axial surfaces, and/or curved or slanted surfaces of the turbine rotor assemblies are preferably configured and located for multiple inlet and exit velocities of the nozzles, multiple inlet and exit pressures of the nozzles, or combinations thereof. The one or more fluids entering the turbine may each be a substance of single phase, or a substance of multiple phases, or a mix of the single-phase and/or multiple-phase conditions for two or more entrance fluids.
Summary of the Invention: The purpose of preferred embodiments of the present invention is to provide a multiple-fluid, multiple-substance, multiple-phase, multiple-pressure, multiple-temperature, multiple-stage turbine engine. One advantage of preferred embodiments of the present invention is that the invention can operate using a turbine inlet fluid that is in either a liquid state or a vapor state, or both, and can be easily sized to match the requirements of a customer; there is no requirement for operators. Moreover, the turbine size, and corresponding power plant size, can be tailored to the energy needs of the customer, as opposed to the case of a centralized power plant wherein the electricity must be transmitted great distances to customers, at a cost.
Another advantage of preferred embodiments of the present invention is that more than one turbine engine can be coupled to and/or operated in conjunction with one or more other turbine engines of the present invention. Coupled turbines can use a variety of coupling methods/devices, such as rigidly couplings, hydraulically couplings, magnetically couplings, or “slip” couplings, to name a few. One or more turbine engine(s), or portion(s) of turbine engine(s), of the present invention may be operated in conjunction with one or more other turbine engine(s), whether of the present invention or background art turbine(s). Arrangement(s) of turbine engines, whether solely of the present invention or in combination with background art turbine(s), may be in whatever practical, economical, thermodynamic, fluidic, aesthetical and/or functional fashion is so desired or beneficial.
Patent Document
Related: Energy & Hydrogen Technology | Mechanical Engineering | Amarillo, Texas | Paris, Texas | Shannon Warren, Patent Attorney