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Nov. 26, 2003 -- Power Tube Inc. will develop a prototype of its novel technology for turning the heat of the earth into electrical power after completing a successful engineering review of the technology.
The review was conducted by the Center for Electromechanics at The University of Texas at Austin under a contract with Power Tube. "Validation of our concept by the researchers at the university is a very important step to bringing our product to market," according to Glenn Lovelace, CEO. "Once the prototype development is complete, we will have a product that can produce clean energy at roughly the same cost as fossil fuels from far more locations than are currently available to conventional geothermal energy."
"We now have very high confidence that we have a viable prototype development plan, and are recommending immediately moving into a prototype development phase," said Dr. Joe Beno, the lead university researcher on the evaluation. "This development has the potential to change the way we are able to harness the natural and abundant clean energy from the heat of the earth. We are looking forward to finalizing the design and building a working prototype to evaluate the technology and economics."
The concept was developed by Power Tube Inc.'s Chief Technology Officer, Doyle Brewington, based on Brewington's 30 years of experience working with power plants, mostly in emerging countries. It is dubbed "Argus" and is a closed-loop, renewable, power plant that can produce up to 10 megawatts of electricity. A 10 megawatt plant can provide electrical power for 5,000 to 8,000 homes in the United States, and significantly more in some areas of the world.
Even in the mature world of geothermal energy, there are conventional designs and novel designs. Standard geothermal design uses a combination of natural steam and water injected into the earth and relies on hot water or steam to return and drive a turbine. Geothermal energy represents less than 0.5 percent of the world's energy today.
A key component of the new concept, however, is to use a thermal riser to bring the heat up to the boiler, instead of using injected water or steam. The thermal riser is a self-contained device that circulates a thermal transfer fluid within a single tube.
The geothermal energy boils a working fluid within the boiler and the gas produced spins a turbine to generate electricity and then cools back down into a liquid, where the process continues.
Because it does not rely on surface water, this approach significantly increases the number of sites that can use the heat of the earth to provide electricity. Power Tube has coined a new word to describe this technology - geomagmatic.
The evaluation included a literature review, study of the proposed concept, computer simulation and analysis, design refinement, preliminary cost analysis, risk identification and mitigation plan development, and program plan development for a 1 megawatt demonstration.
A new database developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology allowed the evaluation team to make an automated assessment of a range of materials and process designs. This database coupled with significant research from the University of Texas, represented the core of a modeling tool that was developed to aid Power Tube in identifying potential electrical output from a wide arrange of geothermally active areas.
As another independent indication of the product's potential, the team won a grant of $125,000 in the very competitive Texas Advanced Technology Program for ongoing development of the Argus prototype.
The grant is for both The University of Texas at Austin and work from Dr. Richard Erdlac, a research scientist studying geothermal energy at the Center for Energy and Economic Development at UT Permian Basin.
"The Argus unit has an enormous potential impact," Erdlac said. "It could change the approach to conventional geothermal energy development as well as open the door to unconventional deep sedimentary basin environments where high temperatures are present."
Power Tube Inc. is an Austin, Texas company that is developing clean energy power plants. It is a member of the Clean Energy Incubator also at the University of Texas at Austin. For more information on Power Tube, see its web site at www.powertubeinc.com.
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