Generator Blog

If you live in an area prone to earthquakes, hurricanes or tornadoes, it’s a good idea to buy a backup power generator. Sometimes it doesn’t even take a disaster to knock out your power. In Los Angeles a 2006 heat wave caused power failures across the region. One hundred and forty deaths were blamed on the heat.

To choose a backup power generator, take these steps.

Current Applications
Many hydrogen generators that use water electrolysis technology are sold to the public as part of fuel efficiency systems to be installed in private vehicles. An ultra-high purity hydrogen generator that works on the water electrolysis system is used in medical and research fields to produce high purity hydrogen for gas chromatography and other uses. Extraction and reformation generators tend to be used in fueling stations for hydrogen cars (they extract the hydrogen from natural gas stored at the stations) and in hydrogen fuel cells that are installed in hybrid vehicles that combine the cell with a conventional combustion engine.
Potential Applications
Many countries are aggressively pursuing the development of hydrogen generator technology as they recognize that hydrogen generators could radically reduce the amount of toxic emissions released into the atmosphere if systems were placed in all vehicles, whether as hydrogen fuel cells in a hybrid car or as additional supports to fuel efficiency in a standard car, and hydrogen generators were added to their country’s power grids. The use of hydrogen generators in vehicles could drastically reduce dependence on fossil fuels. That a hydrogen generator can be easily built out of everyday items and produce enough electricity and H2 gas to power houses, vehicles and other applications could change the nature of the global economy by making electricity and power affordable and available to everyone, on or off established power grids. Both the Energy Information Administration of the U.S. Government and the National Research Council of Canada maintain websites to promote and document their efforts into seeing their technology brought into its full use within the next 20 years. Both countries support research to release the potential ability of a hydrogen generator to “recycle” chemicals and use plain water as a source for energy and make it a source for endless, renewable electricity.

Hydrogen generators may either be generators that are powered by hydrogen or ones that make hydrogen. A generator that is powered by hydrogen will use the gas or a hydrogen fuel cell to generate electricity for use by the generator. A generator that produces hydrogen will do so through either by using electrolysis processing or water, or the extraction and reformation of pure hydrogen from a hydrogen rich chemical such as sodium borohydride, ammonia, methanol or gasoline. The water electrolysis method produces little waste to be disposed o,f while the extraction and reformation process creates numerous byproducts that must be disposed of or recycled through some other process.

Whether the hydrogen generator is using water or extracting and reforming hydrogen from other chemicals, the basic principal of the generator remains the same. The source liquid or chemical is placed in a container with two metal plates. The plates are then “charged” (either through the introduction of electricity or through a chemical reaction) causing the elements of the source to separate into H2 and a byproduct that is not used by the generator. The H2 is then removed from the container.

Siemens Energy has received an order from the Russian company OOO RN-Tuapsinskiy NPZ, a fully owned subsidiary of OAO Rosneft, for the supply of six industrial gas turbine generators. The SGT-800 gas turbine-generators each rated at 47 megawatts will be operated in the Tuapse refinery located on the Black Sea. The first three gas turbines are scheduled for delivery by late 2010, with the remaining three units to follow by the end of 2012. The order is valued at approximately EUR 90 million.

The order encompasses six gas turbines and six generators that are needed for the generation of electricity and steam to accommodate expansion of the Tuapse refinery’s capacity. Tuapse is an important petroleum port on the Black Sea. The customer OOO RN-Tuapsinskiy NPZ is currently undertaking extensive expansion and upgrading projects at the refinery to increase the plant’s capacity from a current 5 million to about 12 million metric tons (38 million to 88 million barrels). At the same time refining depth will be increased from 56 to 95 percent.

The SGT-800 stands out with its first-class efficiency, high availability and reliability, and low life cycle costs. NOX emissions are minimized thanks to its Dry Low Emissions (DLE) combustion system. A critical project requirement for the gas turbines being supplied to the Tuapse refinery is their capability to operate on various fuels. The SGT-800’s DLE system is unique in that it can achieve low emissions on a wide variety of fuels.

Including this order, 29 SGT-800 gas turbines have already been ordered by customers from Russia or have been delivered to Russia. For instance, between 2007 and 2008 Siemens received orders from Rosneft for a total of seven SGT-800’ machines for the gas turbine power plant at the Priobskoye oil field.

In June 2009, the Kolomenskoe gas turbine power plant in Moscow, supplied by Siemens with three SGT-800 machines, was able to start commercial operation. The cogeneration power plant supplies the Russian capital with 136 megawatts of electricity as well as 171 Gcal/hour of district heat. Overall plant efficiency is 83 percent.

(The SGT-800 gas turbine features high efficiency and low life-cycle costs. It is used for simple cycle power generation, for combined cycle power generation (CCPP) and because of its excellent waste heat recovery potential it is ideal for combined heat and power (CHP). The photo shows the SGT-800 gas turbine with a capacity of 47 megawatts at the Finspong plant in Sweden.)

Trident Energy’s plans to create power from sea waves suffered a setback after an 80-tonne floating generator capsized off the coast of Suffolk.

Trident Energy’s experimental device was being towed out to sea to begin a year-long offshore trial when the accident happened on Monday, 21 September near Southwold, Suffolk, eastern England.

The technology was being tested in the sea to gather detailed information on how the machine performed.

The generator was to have been placed 8km off Southwold for the year-long evaluation that may lead to new wave farms being developed that are capable of powering 60,000 homes.

Coastguards alerted local shipping as the 18-metre-tall machine drifted with the tide until tugs could secure lines and take it to nearby Dunwich Bay.

Trident Energy confirms that the generator has been grounded and made secure, about 5km east of Southwold harbour.

A spokeswoman for Trident Energy said that the company is in the process of making arrangements to move the platform to a suitable location where any damage can be fully assessed before determining next steps.

The spokeswoman added: “Trident Energy can confirm that the incident was in no way related to its patented technology to convert sea wave energy into electricity.”

The technology, developed by Trident, is designed to stand on giant legs that sit on floating pontoons anchored to the seabed. This enables special floats between the legs to move up and down with the waves and drive a turbine, which generates electricity.

It is not known at this stage whether the machine was badly damaged.

An induction generator is a type of electrical generator that is mechanically and electrically similar to a polyphase induction motor. Induction generators produce electrical power when their shaft is rotated faster than the synchronous frequency of the equivalent induction motor. An electric voltage (electromotive force) is induced in a conducting loop (or coil) when there is a change in the number of magnetic field lines (or magnetic flux) passing through the loop. When the loop is closed by connecting the ends through an external load, the induced voltage will cause an electric current to flow through the loop and load. Thus rotational energy is converted into electrical energy.

Induction generators are often used in wind turbines and some micro hydro installations due to their ability to produce useful power at varying rotor speeds. Induction generators are mechanically and electrically simpler than other generator types. They are also more rugged, requiring no brushes or commutators.

Induction generators are not self-exciting, meaning they require an external supply to produce a rotating magnetic flux. The external supply can be supplied from the electrical grid or from the generator itself, once it starts producing power. The rotating magnetic flux from the stator induces currents in the rotor, which also produces a magnetic field. If the rotor turns slower than the rate of the rotating flux, the machine acts like an induction motor. If the rotor is turned faster, it acts like a generator, producing power at the synchronous frequency.

In fact, an induction generator may operate as a motor or a generator. For instance, a standard, 3 phases, AC motor may be powered from the 50 Hz grid, with the motor speed “slipping” at less than for 50 Hz synchronism. If this motor is itself forced to rotate at more than for 50Hz synchronism by a rotating power source, (e.g. a diesel engine or wind turbine), while connected to the grid, it delivers current to the grid as a generator. The current flow is proportional to the slip, i.e. the small difference, 3%, between synchronised rpm and the actual rpm. This slip is too small to notice as a speed change of a wind turbine rotor, so induction generators are classed, somewhat erroneously, as fixed-speed generators. This type of generator is very simple, rugged, and relatively cheap. Usually it is “excited” into operation.

In induction generators the magnetizing flux is established by a capacitor bank connected to the machine in case of stand alone system and in case of grid connection it draws magnetizing current from the grid. It is mostly suitable for wind generating stations as in this case speed is always a variable factor.

 MHD (magneto hydrodynamic) power plants offer the potential for large-scale electrical power generation with reduced impact on the environment. Since 1970, several countries have undertaken MHD research programs with a particular emphasis on the use of coal as a fuel. MHD generators are also attractive for the production of large electrical power pulses.

The MHD generator or dynamo transforms thermal energy or kinetic energy directly into electricity. MHD generators are different from traditional electric generators in that they can operate at high temperatures without moving parts. MHD was developed because the exhaust of a plasma MHD generator is a flame, still able to heat the boilers of a steam power plant. So high-temperature MHD was developed as a topping cycle to increase the efficiency of electric generation, especially when burning coal or natural gas. It has also been applied to pump liquid metals and for quiet submarine engines.

The basic concept underlying the mechanical and fluid dynamos is the same. The fluid dynamo, however, uses the motion of fluid or plasma to generate the currents which generate the electrical energy. The mechanical dynamo, in contrast, uses the motion of mechanical devices to accomplish this. The functional difference between an MHD generator and an MHD dynamo is the path the charged particles follow.

MHD generators are now practical for fossil fuels, but have been overtaken by other, less expensive technologies, such as combined cycles in which a gas turbine’s or molten carbonate fuel cell’s exhaust heats steam for steam turbine. The unique value of MHD is that it permits an older single-cycle fossil-fuel power plant to be upgraded to high efficiency.

Natural MHD dynamos are an active area of research in plasma physics and are of great interest to the geophysics and astrophysics communities. From their perspective the earth is a global MHD dynamo and with the aid of the particles on the solar wind produces the aurora borealis. The differently charged electromagnetic layers produced by the dynamo effect on the earth’s geomagnetic field enable the appearance of the aurora borealis. As power is extracted from the plasma of the solar wind, the particles slow and are drawn down along the field lines in a brilliant display over the poles.

In electricity generation, an electrical generator is a device that converts mechanical energy to electrical energy, generally using electromagnetic induction.

The reverse conversion of electrical energy into mechanical energy is done by a motor; motors and generators have many similarities. A generator forces electric charges to move through an external electrical circuit, but it does not create electricity or charge, which is already present in the wire of its windings. It is somewhat analogous to a water pump, which creates a flow of water but does not create the water inside. The source of mechanical energy may be a reciprocating or turbine steam engine, water falling through a turbine or waterwheel, an internal combustion engine, a wind turbine, a hand crank, compressed air or any other source of mechanical energy.

Today, the technology of electrical generator is to come to maturity, but its historic developments are complicated.

Before the connection between magnetism and electricity was discovered, electrostatic generators were invented that used electrostatic principles. These generated very high voltages and low currents. They operated by using moving electrically charged belts, plates and disks to carry charge to a high potential electrode. The charge was generated using either of two mechanisms:

Electrostatic induction

The turboelectric effect, where the contact between two insulators leaves them charged.

Because of their inefficiency and the difficulty of insulating machines producing very high voltages, electrostatic generators had low power ratings and were never used for generation of commercially-significant quantities of electric power. The Wimshurst machine and Van de Graff generator are examples of these machines that have survived.

In 1827, Hungarian Anyos Jedlik started experimenting with electromagnetic rotating devices which he called electromagnetic self-rotors. In the prototype of the single-pole electric starter (finished between 1852 and 1854) both the stationary and the revolving parts were electromagnetic. He formulated the concept of the dynamo at least 6 years before Siemens and Wheatstone but didn’t patent it as he thought he wasn’t the first to realize this. In essence the concept is that instead of permanent magnets, two electromagnets opposite to each other induce the magnetic field around the rotor. Jedlik’s invention was decades ahead of its time.

In 1831-1832 Michael Faraday discovered the operating principle of electromagnetic generators. The principle, later called Faraday’s law, is that a potential difference is generated between the ends of an electrical conductor that moves perpendicular to a magnetic field. He also built the first electromagnetic generator, called the ‘Faraday disc’, a type of homopolar generator, using a copper disc rotating between the poles of a horseshoe magnet. It produced a small DC voltage, and large amounts of current.

The Dynamo was the first electrical generator capable of delivering power for industry. The dynamo uses electromagnetic principles to convert mechanical rotation into a pulsing direct electric current through the use of a commutator. The first dynamo was built by Hippolyte Pixii in 1832.

A dynamo machine consists of a stationary structure, which provides a constant magnetic field, and a set of rotating windings which turn within that field. On small machines the constant magnetic field may be provided by one or more permanent magnets; larger machines have the constant magnetic field provided by one or more electromagnets, which are usually called field coils.

About the size of a small moving van, the diesel generator can process several types of refuse, including paper, plastic, Styrofoam, cardboard, woodchips and food waste.

The biorefinery uses two different processes to create fuel.

The machine separates food material into a bioreactor that uses the yeast ferments to create ethanol.

Other materials go to a gasifier and are converted into propane gas and methane, which then fuel the diesel engine that creates electricity.

The system is designed to run on diesel oil for several hours until the gasifier and the bioreactor begin to produce fuel, researchers said.

The Army commissioned completion of a prototype and is considering it for future use. According to its builders, the system lowers the potential danger and expense of transporting fuel and waste and helps cover the tracks of mobile military units because it destroys trash–the evidence of their presence.

The generator is also an environmentally friendly alternative to traditional diesel generators, they say. Using biomass as a fuel is less polluting than oil because plants absorb carbon dioxide, according to scientists at Indiana-based Purdue.

Also, they note that the system is efficient, with the first prototype producing about 90 percent more energy than it consumes.

Maybe the deployment of these “gizmos” might just help turn the tide on the bad guys in the “war” zones: imagine a “Portable, trash-powered generator” to provide combat units with unlimited power for medical equipment usage in cases where the choppers can come under heavy fire and risk being shot down - they can be treated in-house - less travel risks, less risk to supply lines/routes…

sounds a perfect product，when is it built? Maybe in the future….

A solar generator can benefit the home in a variety of ways. Depending on the size, it can allow a homeowner and family to remain unaffected in the event of a power failure. It can also be used to simply cut the costs of daily energy use.

In very simplified terms, a solar generator works by converting solar energy into electrical energy. This energy can then be used to do such things as power lighting, heat water, and run the TV. The generator consists of solar panels (which must be placed where they will receive the most possible sunlight,) a deep cycle battery for continuous use, and an inverter.

The inverter is necessary to convert the DC power stored in the battery into AC power. Determining the appropriate strength of an inverter for a solar power system is a fairly simple task to accomplish. First, add up the wattages of all of the appliances the solar generator is intended to power. Then, purchase an inverter that is slightly more powerful.

Of course, if the generator is only going to be used to run DC appliances, there is no need for an inverter. A DC meter and DC input will suffice. It is also possible to buy a ready-made solar generator, one complete with all the necessary components.

Many solar generators are capable of lasting a lifetime. Most are easy to install and easy to use. They are often ideal for usage in remote locations such as a winter home in the desert or a cabin up in the woods.If you intent to buy solar generators,I recommend a good station, cheap and high quality:Made-in-china.com.

How to Make a Solar Power Generator ? Follow me:

1.Buy (or make) yourself a small solar panel. You should be able to get one rated at 12 volts or better (look for 16 volts) at an RV or marine supplies store .

2.Buy yourself a battery.Get any size deep cycle 12 volt lead/acid or gel battery. We recommend rechargeable batteries from these green companies: Greenbatteries Store and Batteries.com. You need the deep cycle battery for continuous use. The kind in your car is a cranking battery–just for starting an engine.

3. Get a battery box to put it in.This is good for covering up the exposed terminals in case there are children about If you going to install the system in a pump shed, cabin, or boat, skip this.

4. Buy a DC input.This is enough to power DC appliances, and there are many commercially available, like fans, one-pint water boilers, lights, hair dryers, baby bottle warmers, and vacuum cleaners. Many cassette players, answering machines, and other electrical appliances are DC already and with the right cable will run straight off the box.

5. But if you want to run AC appliances, you will have to invest in an inverter. This will convert the stored DC power in the battery into AC power for most of your household appliances.Count up the number of watts you’ll be using (e.g., a small color television(=60 watts) with a VCR(=22 watts), you’ll need 82 watts.

6. Use a drill to attach the meter and DC input to the top of the box.

7. Use insulated wire to attach the meter to the wingnut terminals on the battery. Connect the negative (-) pole first. Only handle one wire at a time. Connect the DC inlet to the battery in the same way. Connect the solar panel to the battery in the same way.

8. Close the lid (I use a bungee cord to keep it tight). Put the solar panel in the sun. It takes 5-8 hours to charge a dead battery; 1-3 hours to top off a weak one. It will run radios, fans, and small wattage lights all night, or give you about 5 hours of continuous use at 115 volt AC, or about an hour boiling water. This system may be added on to with larger panels, inverters, and batteries.

Options: A pop-up circuit breaker may be added between the positive treminal and the volt meter. Some of you will want an ampmeter as well. The panels I recommend have built-in bypass diodes, but I recommend charge controllers for people who have panels without diodes. Another option is a voltage regulator, which is not necessary for a system this small, but a larger system would require one.