Electricity + Control January 2018

PRESSURE + LEVEL MEASUREMENT + INSTRUMENTATION

peak electricity of 2,6 kW in a harvest length of 40 cm.This is despite the overall system efficiency of just 0,81% for Model A. We have built a simu- lation model and used it to design Model B (Beta Prototype) and are currently building Model B with the objective of piloting the system from March 2018 at the already secured pilot site. Putting this technology in context, about seven in 10 people in sub-Saharan African have no access to electricity. Accounting for about 70% of the en- tire sub-Saharan electricity, South Africa does not have as big a pain as the other major countries in sub-Saharan Africa. As a result, this solution, though invented and developed in South Africa, may not seem critical in the South African con- text. However, if we look at a typical sub-Saharan African city situation which generally has serious problems of electricity coverage and intermittent electricity supply coupled with crippling traffic sit- uation, then there is an over-supply of traffic and an undersupply of electricity. Now this innovation would be a lifeline in such an environment and cer- tainly improve lives dramatically. We believe it is those almost hopeless situations that the true val- ue of this innovation will be realised and can make an immeasurable impact all around. Why should we care about traffic as a re- newable energy source? For starters we are guaranteed to have it and can predict it with much more confidence than the other renewable energy sources. However, the fol- lowing are some of the most compelling reasons why traffic makes sense: • Shorter installation time of up to six months • No emissions, no pollution; no bi-products, it is a major weapon in combating climate change • Production mirrors the traffic cycles, which in turn, mirrors power demands. It is a natural fit. • Once optimised there is massive extraction potential • It is generated close to the point of use, no need for long transmission lines and their as- sociated losses and costs • It will use existing spaces, roads, and will not require dedicated large areas for installation • Design incorporates potential for genuine base-load viability

roads from this pressure to pondering the possibil- ities of harvesting this pressure. This slight change in perspective brought us to the realisation that Roads are the biggest artificial energy source in the world. The first hurdle was to prove that these pressures could be harvested from the road and be transferred to the side of the road where they could do useful work. To do this, we conceived, success- fully designed and installed a test overlay layer that successfully harvested these pressures. To validate this, we logged pressure a few metres away from the test overlay layer section. Our results revealed that: • Passing vehicles literally create pressure ex- plosions/ spikes whenever they travel over the overlay section • These pressures are proportional to the weight of the vehicles The next challenge was to get these pressure explosions to do effective work. To convert these pressure explosions into energy, we invented the Traffic Turbine, which is essentially a hybrid be- tween a four-stroke internal combustion engine, a bicycle and a wind turbine. However, the traffic tur- bine is not driven by combustion but rather by the aforementioned pressure explosions harvested from the road to create reciprocation of the hydrau- lic cylinders and then the rotation of the central shaft which then drives a generator and generates electricity. The key feature of the system is the central shaft which essentially enables us to install the system parallel to the road for however long a length of road that needs to be harvested to meet a specific power demand. The central shaft gives the system the ability to accumulate individual forces and combine them into one massive output per shaft. We perceive the system as installed in a concrete chamber on the side of and in parallel to the road and with all its workings removed from the public and road users’ eyes. Successful Model A As proof of concept, we built Model A (Alpha Pro- totype) of the system and successfully tested it. We have installed the Model A Prototype at our office and with the successful incorporation of the inverter and a battery we are using it to power the lights at our offices. We are currently running it with a specially designed test truck with a var- iable load of up to 4 000 kg and are producing a

Take Note!

Put the landing of an airbus and an out-of- the-box thinker in the same space – and you have the discovery of a crucial link between traffic and electricity. The link is pressure. And pressure, the most precious commodity in base-load power gener- ation, can be harvested from the roads –without mining and burning min- eral resources to create it.

1

2 3

Is it possible that pressure will soon be harvested in its raw form from our roads?

The frequently asked questions regarding the sys- tem are:

Electricity + Control

JANUARY 2018

31

Made with FlippingBook - professional solution for displaying marketing and sales documents online