Jump to content

Vortex Bladeless

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Vortex Bladeless Ltd.
Company typeTechnologystartup,limited company
IndustryRenewable energy,Wind Energy
Founded2014;10 years ago(2014)
HeadquartersMadrid&Avila,Spain
Key people
cofounders:David Yáñez, David Suriol, Raul Martín
ProductsVIVoscillatingwind powergenerators
Websitevortexbladeless.com

Vortex Bladeless Ltd.is a Spanish technologystartup companythat is developing a specific type ofwind powergenerator without rotating blades or lubricants.[1]Power is produced fromresonantvibrations when wind passes through theturbineand is deflected into vortices in a process calledvortex shedding.[2]

This technology might replace previoussolar electricityinstallations, such as low-power systems, off-grid generation, autonomous systems, anddistributed generationof electricity.[3]

Technology[edit]

Vortex Bladeless is avortex-induced vibrationresonant wind generator, in contrast tohorizontal-axis wind turbines(HAWT) andvertical-axis wind turbines(VAWT) that work by rotation. Vortex's innovation comes from its unusual shape and way of harnessing energy by oscillation;fiberglassandcarbon fiber reinforced polymermast oscillates in the wind, taking advantage of the emission ofvon Kármán vorticeswhen a moving fluid passes over a slender structure.[4][5]At the bottom of the mast, a carbon fiber rod moves analternatorthat generates electricity with no moving parts in contact.[6]Vortex Bladeless does not rotate and thus is not a turbine.[clarification needed].

The design seeks to overcome perceived issues related to rotary wind turbines such as maintenance, amortization, noise, birds and environmental impact, logistics, and visual aspects[citation needed].According to the firm, Vortex generators have a smallcarbon footprintand use less raw materials compared to rotary wind turbines of the same height.[7]They are expected to have a low center of gravity that allows for a smallfoundationdimensions and a very lowwake turbulence,so several Vortex generators can fit in the same area as one rotary turbine, possibly improving on the lower energy density perhectarethat wind turbines usually achieve[citation needed].However, the firm does not aim to compete with the wind turbine industry but to offer asmall wind turbinealternative for the end-consumer market and low-power systems, markets served poorly or not at all by larger-scale wind power.[2]

Vortex is a vertical, slender, cylindrical device. It is composed of two main parts: a fixedbasewhere the device is attached to an anchor, and a flexiblemastwhich, acting as acantilever,interacts more freely with moving fluid in an oscillating movement. It has nogearsor moving parts in contact, so it needs no oils or lubricants as do rotary machines. The device's operation barely requires maintenance and operating costs.[8]All these features make them closer to solar power's features and make them more useful for distributed energy[citation needed].Alinear alternatortransforms mechanical energy into electricity. It counts withneodymium magnetsand itsstatoris located inside of the moving part of the device.[7]

While converting mechanical energy into electricity, the alternatordampsthe induced oscillation movement and simultaneously can modify the natural oscillation frequency of the moving structure. Thus, thelock-in rangeis increased while maintaining theresonance frequencyat higher wind speeds. The firm patented a mechanism calledtuning systemfor this task, based on magnetic repulsion.[7]Unlike rotary wind turbines, this phenomenon can modify theapparent elasticity constantof the structure which depends on the oscillation amplitude, allowing it to grow as long as wind speed grows. Despite its simplicity, 6 families of registeredpatentsprotect the design and technology worldwide.[9]

Bladeless wind devices[edit]

Vortex Bladeless is currently working on two future products that are expected to be commercially available in 2021. The specified goals for each model are:[10]

  • Vortex Nano– 1 metre (3.3 ft) high and 3 W nominal power output. Designed mainly to bring energy to off-grid locations for low-power systems, working along with solar panels. Stage: pre-production of a first beta series.
  • Vortex Tacoma– 2.75 metres (9.0 ft) high and 100 W nominal power output. Designed mainly for small-scale residential and rural autonomous operation, working with solar panels. Stage: prototype, being developed.
  • Vortex Atlantis/Grand– 9–13 metres (30–43 ft) high and around 1 kW nominal power output. Designed for residential and rural autonomous operation and complementary installation with solar panels over buildings and factories. Stage: projected but not being developed yet.

With Vortex technology, the amount of energy harnessed grows exponentially squared by height and cubed by wind speed. Thus, bigger Vortex devices are desirable since production costs grow more slowly than power generation with height, giving as a result more profitable and efficient devices able to work with higher winds. As of 2021,because of theirsmall and medium-sized enterprises(SME) status, the firm is only working on thesesmall wind turbinealternative devices.[11]

Story and biography[edit]

Vortex Bladeless Ltd.is a wind energy Spanishstartup companythat was formalised in 2012 by David Yáñez, David Suriol, and Raúl Martín. In 2014, they officially founded the firm as full-time employees.[2][12]The original idea emerged in 2002 when David Yáñez, the inventor, saw a video of theTacoma Narrows Bridge (1940)disaster which led him to the idea that there is a lot of energy contained in the physical principle that collapsed the bridge, and it could be harnessed as a new way to generate energy from wind. His idea was kept in a drawer for years until 2012 when they began to look for investors and funding to start the project.[13]

In early 2014, Vortex obtained public funding from theCentre for the Development of Industrial Technology(CDTI) and began to collaborate withBarcelona Supercomputing Center(BSC)[14]and their huge computing resources for the simulations onvortex-induced vibrations(VIV),magnetic fieldinteractions, andfinite element methodmagnetics (FEMM) researches needed for their development.[15]The proof of concept was validated and the story of Vortex began winning the South Summit Award 2014 in the category of Energy and Industry.

In 2015, the firm began collaborating with representatives from theMassachusetts Institute of Technology(MIT) andHarvard University.[10][16]In the United States, the project reached the companyAltair Engineeringwho offered their advanced simulation software to Vortex for their investigation on theirfluid dynamicsconcept. Also, NGOs and other environmental entities likeBirdLife Internationalhave shown interest in this system and offered to collaborate,[17]since Vortex may have a lower impact on nature and birds, especially as bigger wind power devices are built in the future. Thanks to the support from these public administration and research centers, in 2015, Vortex launched in June a successfulcrowdfundingcampaign to fund the first supply agreements, and hire engineers needed to advance the project.[18]

In late 2016, and after validating the technology on computer simulations and technology demonstrators, the company reached the prototype stage with a geometry that can harness a useful amount of energy from the wind with this principle. At this stage, Vortex was able to apply for funding from theHorizon 2020for research and innovation programme of theEuropean Commission.[19]Being the most funding that the company had, Vortex built a bigwind tunnel,the tallest in Spain, for testing their systems, and began the development of their patented concept of an oscillating alternator with tuning system. On this phase, the company won theSeal of Excellenceof the H2020 programme.[20]

During 2017, the firm kept developing their alternator and tuning system. Since this technology is considered as new in many aspects intervening (geometry, movement, energy conversion system), it has been a harder development than the firm expected. The collaboration on this stage of the Microgravity Institute of theTechnical University of Madridand theEuropean University of Madrid,alongside CDTI, Altair, Birdlife andBarcelona Supercomputing Center(BSC) were the key to obtain a feasible technology that can harness energy from the wind on this particular way. In this year the company obtained the "Innovation SME" seal of the Spanish government.[21]

In 2018, the firm began to plan to industrialize their aerogenerators. At this point, the firm faced many problems due to the lack of feasibleindustrial productionprocesses to mass-produce some of the pieces that use Vortex technology. The geometry and the materials were almost finalized at this stage, so the firm began a certification process for their current prototypes and obtained theISO 9001.This certification is a regular process for every wind turbine in the European and American market. The standard is written for bladed and rotary turbines, and may need to be rewritten to certify Vortex devices as wind generators.[citation needed]

The goals of the firm for the future are to obtain the certification needed to start selling, and to set up a feasible method of production and logistics of shipping so they can start commercializing the first Vortex turbines for 2020.[2]They have recently shown performance tests in Puerto Cortés, Honduras.[22]

Awards, strategic partners[edit]

Most relevant strategic partners for Vortex Bladeless are theExecutive Agency for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises(EASME), theCentre for the Development of Industrial Technology(CDTI),Altair Engineering,and the Council ofCastile and Leónin Spain.[23]The awards won by the company or their team are all related to energy, innovation, and entrepreneurship,[24][25]listed by date:

  • 2017 – Innovation SME of the Spanish Government
  • 2016 – EU's SME instrument Seal of Excellence
  • 2016 –Renewable of the Year 2016at 10thFrom Avilaphase of Energy
  • 2014 – The South Summit Award (category of energy and industry)
  • 2014 –Engineers BoxEntrepreneurs Award
  • 2012 –Entrepreneurs FundRepsol Foundation Award
  • 2021 – One of 15 finalists for the Social Innovation Tournament run by European Investment Bank[26]

Criticisms[edit]

Conventional modern wind turbines attain 2–3 megawatts nameplate capacity, 40–55% capacity factors, and can generate a kilowatt hour of electricity for $0.02–0.035.[citation needed]The inventors found an ideal wind speed of 26 miles per hour.[citation needed]Others have attempted bladeless technology.[citation needed]The Fuller Wind Turbine System was a bladeless wind turbine announced in 2010 by Solatec LLC. Saphon Energy announced a bladeless wind turbine in 2012.[27]

Vortex Bladeless is attempting to produce a wind turbine that isn't actually a turbine. All generators require a magnetic field, a conductor and motion to produce electricity. A smallgeneratorcan only produce a small amount of power. It takes a lot of energy (movement) to make a generator turn. The biggest are generally turned by massive amounts of falling water, heat, steam or air. There is very little movement in the Vortex "turbine". All the movement at the top doesn't translate to much down where the generator is. They use alinear generator.[28]

References[edit]

  1. ^Frangoul, Anmar (21 September 2017)."The future of wind turbines could be bladeless".CNBC.Retrieved11 December2018.
  2. ^abcd"Vortex Bladeless biography".Vortex Bladeless.14 May 2018.Retrieved11 December2018.
  3. ^"Vortex in a nutshell".Vortex Bladeless.9 April 2018.Retrieved11 December2018.
  4. ^Wanshel, Elyse (25 May 2016)."These Jiggling Bladeless Turbines are a Breath of Fresh Air".Huffington Post.Retrieved13 December2018.
  5. ^Spendlove, Tom (4 June 2015)."Vortex Bladeless Generates Power from Wind without Blades".Engineering.com.Retrieved13 November2016.
  6. ^Patel, Sonal (1 July 2015)."New Approach Powers Bladeless Wind Turbine".Power Magazine.Retrieved27 June2018– via EBSCOHost.
  7. ^abc"White paper".Vortex Bladeless.14 May 2018.Retrieved11 December2018.
  8. ^Johnson, Rob (6 April 2018)."Generating Electricity with Bladeless Wind Turbines".EnterpriseAI.Retrieved22 March2021.
  9. ^Vortex Bladeless Wind Generator.European Commission: EASME(video) (in Spanish and English). 14 August 2017.Retrieved22 March2021.
  10. ^ab"The Vortex Bladeless Wind Turbine".Vortex Bladeless.Retrieved13 November2017.
  11. ^Bates, Dominic (1 June 2015)."Can bladeless wind turbines mute opposition?".The Guardian.ISSN0261-3077.Retrieved13 November2016.
  12. ^Bedi, Biba A. (7 April 2016)."Vortex Bladeless Wind Energy Project Team Receives Altair CAE Suite Donation".PR Newswire(Press release). Cision.Retrieved13 November2016.
  13. ^"Smart sustainability out of Spain".A Magazine.2 October 2015.Retrieved13 November2016.
  14. ^"Shape Project Vortex Bladeless: Parallel multi-code coupling"(PDF).Partnership For Advanced Computing in Europe (PRACE).2 October 2015.Retrieved13 November2016.
  15. ^Repsol Entrepreneurs Fund: Vortex Project.YouTube(in Spanish). Repsol.Retrieved23 March2021.
  16. ^Tucker, Bill."Wind Power Without the Mills".Forbes.Retrieved13 November2016.
  17. ^Benedetti, Lisa (22 June 2015)."Three blades or none?".Birdlife International(in European Spanish).Retrieved22 March2021.
  18. ^"Vortex Bladeless: a wind generator without blades".Indiegogo(in European Spanish).Retrieved13 November2016.
  19. ^Horizon 2020 Agreement (12 March 2016)."Horizon 2020".Retrieved11 December2018.{{cite web}}:CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  20. ^EASME (2 February 2016)."Bladeless wind turbines to save energy and protect bird populations".ec.europa.eu.Retrieved11 December2018.
  21. ^"News and reviews".Retrieved11 December2018.
  22. ^Ordoñez, Orlando; Reyes Duke, A. (2021)."Wind Resource Assessment: Analysis of the Vortex Bladeless Characteristics in Puerto Cortés, Honduras".IOP Conference Series: Earth and Environmental Science.801(1): 012019.Bibcode:2021E&ES..801a2019O.doi:10.1088/1755-1315/801/1/012019.S2CID235740963.
  23. ^"Vortex partners and awards".Vortex Bladeless.10 July 2018.Retrieved11 December2018.
  24. ^"Vortex bladeless wind energy project team receives Altair CAE suite donation". Diario La Razón. 2016 – via ProQuest.
  25. ^"El aerogenerador sin aspas de Vortex Bladeless, Premio Renovable del Año".Ingenieros(in Spanish).Retrieved17 November2016.
  26. ^Social Innovation Tournament,European Investment Bank,retrieved28 May2024
  27. ^"Debunking Wind Turbine Fads".CleanEnergy.org.1 June 2015.Retrieved16 September2021.
  28. ^"Vortex Bladeless - Busted".Youtube.com, Fox Says channel.6 March 2017.Retrieved16 September2021.

External links[edit]

Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Vortex_Bladeless&oldid=1229123002"