ron davis
11-01-2011, 04:49 PM
Hello,
We design and build small water powered turbines in South America (Bolivia).
For some time we have been interested in using our turbines to run refrigeration equipment. A colleague in Colombia has done this successfully on a small scale.
Right now I have a client for a turbine for a fish farm in Africa and he would like to use it for refrigeration.
It seems that running a refrigeration compressor directly with the turbine is the easy part, especially since turbines have very high start up torque.
Then there is a question of power control, air circulation, lighting, etc.
Rural refrigeration is a very valuable potential application for micro hydro power, since it is very expensive and complicated to use solar panels to generate the power to run an electric motor powered compressor.
We would be grateful if someone with practical experience in refrigeration would be interested in advising us about this matter. All help given will be acknowledged on our website.
Best,
Ron Davis
watermotor@yahoo.com
website: watermotor.net
short video of a small Watermotor directly running an air compressor and several other power tools can be seen at: watermotorturbine on Youtube (first Watermotor, 1999)
A short article and photo of a refrigerator being directly run by a tiny pelton turbine can be seen on Flickr, search: watermotor photostream.
We design and build small water powered turbines in South America (Bolivia).
For some time we have been interested in using our turbines to run refrigeration equipment. A colleague in Colombia has done this successfully on a small scale.
Right now I have a client for a turbine for a fish farm in Africa and he would like to use it for refrigeration.
It seems that running a refrigeration compressor directly with the turbine is the easy part, especially since turbines have very high start up torque.
Then there is a question of power control, air circulation, lighting, etc.
Rural refrigeration is a very valuable potential application for micro hydro power, since it is very expensive and complicated to use solar panels to generate the power to run an electric motor powered compressor.
We would be grateful if someone with practical experience in refrigeration would be interested in advising us about this matter. All help given will be acknowledged on our website.
Best,
Ron Davis
watermotor@yahoo.com
website: watermotor.net
short video of a small Watermotor directly running an air compressor and several other power tools can be seen at: watermotorturbine on Youtube (first Watermotor, 1999)
A short article and photo of a refrigerator being directly run by a tiny pelton turbine can be seen on Flickr, search: watermotor photostream.