阅读说明：本技术 可持续能源生产 (Sustainable energy production ) 是由 T·A·雷格鲁特 于 2018-03-05 设计创作，主要内容包括：为了减少住宅或商业设施的整体环境影响,提供了一种用于集成能量使用的系统。在这种系统中,存在用于捕获太阳能的系统；用于发酵生物质并浓缩发酵物从而生成二氧化碳和乙醇的系统；用于储存多余能量以供随后释放的系统；以及用于生长生物质的系统。在集成所述系统时,所捕获的太阳能被用作热能和电能。超过瞬时能量需求的多余能量被储存在用于储存多余能量的系统中。所产生的乙醇被用作燃料。所产生的二氧化碳被提供给所述用于生长生物质的系统。通过释放所储存的多余能量来减少瞬时能量不足。(To reduce the overall environmental impact of a residential or commercial facility, a system for integrating energy usage is provided. Among such systems, there are systems for capturing solar energy; a system for fermenting biomass and concentrating the fermentation to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol; a system for storing excess energy for subsequent release; and a system for growing biomass. In integrating the system, the captured solar energy is used as thermal and electrical energy. Excess energy that exceeds the instantaneous energy demand is stored in the system for storing the excess energy. The produced ethanol is used as a fuel. The generated carbon dioxide is provided to the system for growing biomass. Transient energy deficits are reduced by releasing the stored excess energy.)

1. A system for integrating energy usage, comprising:

a system for capturing solar energy;

a system for fermenting biomass and concentrating the fermentation to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol;

a system for storing excess energy for subsequent release; and

a system for growing biomass;

wherein the captured solar energy is used as thermal and electrical energy, any excess energy is stored in a system for storing excess energy, ethanol is used as a fuel, carbon dioxide is provided to the system for growing biomass, and transient energy shortages are reduced by releasing the stored excess energy.

2. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the system for capturing solar energy includes a heat transfer fluid circulating in a conduit.

3. The system of claim 2, wherein:

the system for capturing solar energy further comprises a reflector to concentrate solar energy onto the conduit.

4. The system of claim 1, wherein:

the system for capturing solar energy includes a photovoltaic cell that generates electrical energy.

5. The system of any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein:

the system for capturing solar energy is disposed within an attic space of a habitable dwelling.

6. The system of claim 1, wherein:

a system for storing excess energy comprising:

a compressor powered by excess energy from the system for capturing solar energy to compress a fluid;

at least one storage member for containing the compressed fluid;

an expander for expanding compressed fluid from the at least one storage member, the power generated by the expander being used to reduce transient energy shortages in the system.

7. The system of claim 1, wherein:

a system for storing excess energy comprising:

a gas liquefaction unit powered by excess energy from the system for capturing solar energy to compress a fluid;

at least one storage member for containing the compressed fluid;

an expander for expanding compressed fluid from the at least one storage member, the power generated by the expander being used to reduce transient energy shortages in the system.

8. The system of claim 6 or claim 7, wherein:

the fluid being compressed is air.

Technical Field

Embodiments disclosed herein relate to modifications and alterations to pre-existing homes and new buildings in order to reduce the energy footprint of residents and residences as well as existing or future power generation facilities. Further, disclosed herein is a scalable energy storage and generation system for both renewable energy sources as well as traditional energy sources for a wide range of possible applications from home scale up to utility scale. Finally, a new construction method is disclosed herein that provides an optimal, attractive roof for installing photovoltaic cells and solar thermal plants in a house attic or other type of building, thereby providing an opportunity to contribute to the energy efficiency of a home or other type of building to previously unused space.

Background

Recently, much discussion has been made regarding the problem of global warming or climate change. Furthermore, there is still a lot of discussion and debate as to whether this is an issue of human cause. Regardless of its source, it is difficult to deny that carbon dioxide in the atmosphere increases and the level of carbon dioxide entering the ocean increases. In addition, since the beginning of the industrial revolution, the regression of glaciers and their effects on global sea level have been well documented.

Glacier regression and increased carbon dioxide content in the ocean are well known risk precursors. Although many projects focus on the effects of carbon dioxide, climate change is caused by a number of reasons. Including several natural phenomena such as volcanic eruptions, ocean currents, earth orbit variations, and the solar cycle. These provide little or no opportunity for human intervention. Some of the causes are partly natural and partly man-made, such as desertification and deforestation, each of which provides some opportunity for human intervention. Finally, greenhouse gas emissions and fossil fuel heat emissions are primarily of human origin and provide the best opportunity for human intervention.

Carbon dioxide is of great concern when referring to greenhouse gases, however other greenhouse gases pose similar and possibly greater threats. These greenhouse gases include carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons, and nitrogen oxides. Among these, halocarbons are essentially man-made and constitute a very persistent threat. The combined effect of all these causes is climate change. Therefore, there is a need to try to eliminate or mitigate any human factor that has a negative impact on the environment and on climate change.

Clearly, efforts are needed to reduce the anthropogenic emissions of carbon dioxide, methane, halocarbons, and nitrogen oxides. Waste heat discharge must also be targeted. Reducing deforestation would include reducing wildfires, which have a significant impact on carbon dioxide.

Some "rough" calculations provide some insight into the extent to which human activity affects climate change. First, to address the issue of carbon dioxide emissions, the composition of greenhouse gas emissions is approximately 72% carbon dioxide, 18% methane (unburned) and 9% nitrogen oxides by dry weight. Since the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 19 th century, global carbon dioxide levels have risen from about 100ppm to about 400 ppm.

Some rough figures indicate the severity of the problem only in terms of the effect of waste heat, which is usually not included in the climate change model since it is very small. Calculations can be made based on 270 billion metric tons (tons) of carbon dioxide emissions per year (estimated 2005). Assuming that all carbon dioxide comes from methane oxidation (212 kcal of reaction per mole produced), the waste heat can be estimated.

Using known conversion coefficients, it can be seen that 270 million tons of carbon dioxide correspond to 6.14X 10¹⁴Molar carbon dioxide. Using the above 212 kcal per mole, the heat released annually for supplying the carbon dioxide amounts to 1.30X 10¹⁷Kilocalories.

This is how much? energy colloquially, the energy released by an atomic bomb thrown in the island in 1945 is estimated to be 1 ten thousand 5 kilotons of TNT, where the energy value of 1 ton of TNT is 999,300 kilocaloriesThe waste heat released in 05 years due to the production of carbon dioxide reaches 1.30 x 10¹¹Ton TNT. When divided by 15,000 tons of the island bomb, 868 million times of explosion of the island bomb can be obtained each year. This is approximately 23,800 such explosions per day! This is a very profound bad message; however, the problem is worse in severity. It is estimated that the effect of waste heat accounts for 1% to 6% of the greenhouse effect. As an optimist, let us assume that in the following calculation the contribution of waste heat is 5%. This assumption makes the mathematical operation simple; the daily waste heat needs to be multiplied by 19 to estimate the effect of radiation recirculation due to greenhouse gases. On this basis, the heat released corresponds to 23,800 times per day of island bomb explosions, and the greenhouse gas corresponds to 452,200 times per day of island bomb explosions, totaling 476,000 times per day of island bomb explosions.

This is a very serious problem which only becomes more serious if, apart from an endless debate on the topic of whether the problem exists, substantially no measures are taken to solve the problem. The endless fierce debate of paralysis causes lack of action to coordinate and effectively solve the problem.

The scientific principles that exactly support the argument that greenhouse gases cause an increase in the amount of energy retained by the earth are actually very simple and irreparable, if someone were to play in the rain for a short time, the simple act of damming in a gutter during a heavy rain simulates what happens in the atmosphere.

Two observations of ice indicate the presence of well-known signs of danger. Arctic sea ice is currently almost completely melted during the summer months. This is a new phenomenon that has not been experienced for a long time (perhaps two thousand years). National parks in glaciers in the united states have witnessed a dramatic decrease in glaciers such that the park is no longer icy by some time in the 30's of the 21 st century. Please consider the fact that a national park with glaciers will no longer have ice; this result is surprisingly similar to the Kajogah fire in Ohio.

These convincing observations, coupled with the surprising degree of impact of the earth's daily increase in heat, required 476,000 times per day of the explosion of the islands bomb to immediately, effectively, and feasibly solve this huge problem. Delaying again would only make the last clearing day more catastrophic. In short, one cannot argue as before. If we have been arguing about ocean boiling, we must argue too long. The scientific community needs to step forward and reach consensus quickly in order to make a sound into the world involved in endless political debates. Next, it is time to take action to solve the problem, which in fact has already been solved, which will improve the quality of life in our society over the world for a considerable number of people whose lifestyles differ from our common attitudes and behaviors in terms of energy use.

Thus, an unrealized advantage of the prior art is to provide an energy model and system for a typical household to reduce its waste heat while reducing fossil fuel consumption, and an energy model and system for a typical power generation facility to reduce its waste heat while reducing fossil fuel consumption. Thus, one unfulfilled advantage of the prior art is to provide an energy storage and power generation system that is reusable, highly sustainable, environmentally friendly, abundant in supply throughout the world and freely available and scalable. Thus, a further unmet advantage of the prior art is to provide a new method to build an attractive durable roof that provides an optimal location for installing photovoltaic cells and/or solar heat collection devices in existing and new homes and buildings. Thus, yet another unfulfilled advantage of the prior art is to provide new configurations of a wide variety of appliances, electrical switches, devices, and other miscellaneous items to collect and store renewable energy sources with new capabilities to be installed in homes and buildings.

Disclosure of Invention

These and other unrealized advantages are provided by a system for integrating energy usage. Such systems include systems for capturing solar energy, systems for fermenting biomass and distilling the fermentation to produce carbon dioxide and ethanol, systems for storing excess energy for later release, and systems for growing biomass, which operate in an integrated manner, wherein the captured solar energy is used as heat and electrical energy, and any excess energy is stored in the systems for storing excess energy. Ethanol is used as a fuel and carbon dioxide is provided to the system for growing biomass and transient energy shortages are reduced by releasing stored excess energy.

In some embodiments, a system for capturing solar energy includes a heat transfer fluid circulating in a conduit. Certain embodiments of the system further comprise a reflector for concentrating solar energy onto the conduit.

In other embodiments, a system for capturing solar energy includes a photovoltaic cell that generates electrical energy.

In the case of heat transfer or photovoltaic, the system for capturing solar energy is preferably disposed within the attic space of the habitable dwelling.

In some embodiments, a system for storing excess energy includes a compressor powered by excess energy from a system for capturing solar energy to compress a fluid, at least one storage member for containing the compressed fluid, an expander for expanding the compressed fluid from the at least one storage member. The power generated by the expander is used to reduce transient energy shortages in the system. In other embodiments, the system for storing excess energy includes a gas liquefaction unit instead of a compressor. In many of these embodiments, the fluid being compressed is air, and the gas may be separated into components upon liquefaction.

Drawings

Some aspects of the invention will be better understood when considered in conjunction with the following drawings, in which like elements are identified with like reference numerals, and in which:

fig. 1 shows a schematic of a first solar thermal application of the inventive concept;

fig. 2 shows a schematic of a second solar thermal application of the inventive concept;

FIG. 3 shows a schematic diagram of a residential ethanol production system; and

fig. 4 shows a schematic diagram of the inventive concept for storing generated energy.

Detailed Description

Initially from a high level, the disclosed embodiments relate to a method that includes using the inventor's named hybrid clean energy unit to generate electricity and using waste heat at an electrical energy generation site to drive any suitable endothermic process, including but not limited to ethanol fermentation, conversion of waste plastic to fuel, coal liquefaction or coal gasification. Furthermore, waste heat may be used to implement physical conversion or purification methods, such as seawater distillation to enable seawater to be used as drinking water.

Fossil fuel power generation

Figure 1 schematically shows how solar thermal applications can be used to reduce electricity or natural gas usage. In embodiment 10, a transparent or translucent roof 12 is used in place of a typical opaque roof. By doing so, in the depicted embodiment, a solar thermal apparatus 14, depicted as a series of pipes 16, is located in an attic space 18 within a house. This eliminates the need for an external roof surface. In this embodiment, a suitable heat transfer liquid (water is a good example) is passed through the tubes 16 located in the attic space 18 to capture heat in the process. An optional set of reflectors 20 is shown below each tube 16. In a preferred embodiment, the reflectors 20 are motorized to track the movement of the sun. The attic space 18 is separated from the habitable space 22 by a thermal insulation layer 24. In addition to, or possibly in lieu of, surface 26 facing attic space 18, may be coated with a reflective material. In some embodiments, only a single conduit 16 may be used.

Below the insulation layer 24, a series of pipes 28 circulate the heated heat transfer fluid during the heating season before heat is extracted for other purposes. These ducts 28 are also shown with optional but preferred reflectors 30. During the non-heating period of the year, the heating fluid in the conduit 16 is diverted directly for heat extraction. In some cases, it may be desirable to use a transparent polymer sheet, such as polycarbonate or poly (methyl methacrylate), as the thermal barrier layer 24. By doing so, solar energy incident on the upper surface will be reflected or refracted through the layer. This allows the habitable spaces 22 to be naturally illuminated during the day. In some embodiments, where the planting racks 32 are installed, the habitable space will instead function as a greenhouse. When this solar thermal embodiment 10 is used with a fermentor or another source of carbon dioxide, the carbon dioxide level of a greenhouse space such as this can be increased to promote growth. Of course, in this case, as a safety regulation, it is prudent to monitor the carbon dioxide level in the habitable space.

In another embodiment 11, as depicted in fig. 2, a series of photovoltaic panels 17 are deployed, preferably immediately below and parallel to the roof surface 12. In this embodiment 11, the power generated in the photovoltaic panels 17 replaces the power that would otherwise be drawn from the overall grid.

These hybrid methods of renewable energy can be used in mid-latitudes in the united states and can be extended to other geographical areas with seasonal-like climates by deploying the present invention (hybrid clean energy unit). From month 4 to month 11, solar thermal arrays may be deployed at a residential or power generation facility. The arrangement of the array may be similar to those already in use, where solar energy is used to preheat and/or boil water before it is sent to the boiler, among other uses, thereby reducing the need for fuel. In a preferred embodiment, the solar energy collection will be done by means of a parabolic mirror, which is automated to follow the position of the sun all day. In cold months, typically from 11 to 4 months, the waste heat discharged from the power plant will be used for space heating. For this purpose, the waste heat emission from the chimney will be transferred through the upper space in a tube, which will be surrounded by reflector elements to radiate heat to the space below. The space heated by the waste heat can also be supplemented by radiant heat generators located at floor level, when required. Furthermore, the space below may be used for any number of possible uses.

One possible use is for biomass growth during winter using greenhouse technology. Heat from the power plant will be used to essentially provide room for this effort. This works as long as the power plant is able to provide a constant heat level to maintain the temperature of the greenhouse space for the plants. Furthermore, greenhouse spaces can be used in warmer months, provided that adequate shielding and insulation is provided when solar energy is being collected. In addition, windows may be added under the shielding and insulation of the greenhouse (or elsewhere) to ventilate the greenhouse when needed.

Another possible use of the area below the solar thermal array is in livestock holding areas. Livestock may live in this area during most of their survival. With this arrangement, the area will actually contain methane produced by the livestock and the methane will be sent to a conventional carbon and/or hydrocarbon and/or biomass and/or ethanol and/or fuel oil power generation facility where the methane is fed to a boiler and/or generator to produce electricity. Furthermore, the unit is designed such that manure from the livestock falls through the grate where it can be easily collected and used for a variety of purposes including, but not limited to, anaerobic digestion, fertilization, and/or composting.

This hybrid approach to renewable energy contributes to the sustainable development of the generator in several ways. First, in warm months, fossil fuels for power generation are reduced by utilizing solar heat. Second, in cold months, the waste heat of the power plant is reduced by using it for space heating of the greenhouse space or other uses of the space. Third, vegetables, lettuce, fruits and other plants can be produced for consumption during the winter months and the summer months. Fourth, if crops could be planted closer to the consumer than if crops were transported remotely, this would save the transportation fuel needed. Fifth, the methane produced by the livestock can now be collected and combusted to produce electricity. Sixth, the excrements of the livestock can now be collected for production purposes. In addition, such growing conditions help farmers avoid having to resort to weather for crop harvest. Furthermore, the animals do not have to be weathered because heating and ventilation can be provided to maintain a more comfortable living area for the animals. Another possible benefit is that the biomass produced by these operations can be combusted to generate electricity.

Providing an area of increased carbon dioxide concentration in the growing area will increase the growth rate of the plant as the plant utilizes carbon dioxide. It is well known that carbon dioxide has a significantly higher molecular weight than oxygen, nitrogen or air (which is a mixture of approximately 80% nitrogen and 20% oxygen), and therefore carbon dioxide will tend to stratify below air, into the lower part of a space, unless the gas in the space is agitated or moved to prevent stratification. Despite the high carbon dioxide content, placing the plants near the floor will enable workers to operate within the space.

It is also important to note that an energy storage and generation system may be added to any of the aforementioned inventions to provide backup power to the facility in the event the primary power source is turned off. The energy storage and generation system is highly scalable and very flexible for any application. Furthermore, the material used for such devices is air. Air is reusable, highly sustainable, environmentally friendly, and can be freely available in sufficient supply worldwide.

The method solves the problems of glacier melting and carbon dioxide content increase. By using such a method and system, waste heat is reduced and the amount of carbon dioxide generated for a given unit of power is reduced. In short, waste heat has been reduced and less fossil fuels are being used. Furthermore, during the winter months, the source of fresh produce is closer to the market.

The inventors contemplate that these hybrid clean energy units are manufactured at a location remote from the point of use to which the prefabricated system is to be delivered. Ideally, these units may be sized so that they can be transported by rail or truck to a power generation facility or farm. Furthermore, the use of an assembly line build method or cell build method will support higher productivity, more consistent manufacturing quality, cost control, and more oversight of the work being completed.

Another option for the generator or farmer is to provide waste heat for space heating needs and hot water needs each year. In the winter, the waste heat can provide space heat for those in need. During the summer months, the steam may drive an absorption chiller to provide air conditioning.

Another alternative to reducing the coal required for electricity is to simply burn the grass clippings and/or biomass. Currently, some grass clippings are composted; however, some of the clippings are simply diverted to a landfill. Burning of the grass clippings can cause problems for the generator due to the chemical composition of the grass clippings. Chromium deposits on boiler equipment are an undesirable problem for power generators, caused by burning biomass (such as grass clippings). In a residential environment, the solar grass demineralizer will be installed on the side of the home where sunlight is most abundant. Water that would normally enter the water heater would be piped through the solar grass demineralizer. Fresh grass clippings will be placed on top of the unit. When grass clippings are exposed to sunlight and composted, heat is generated. This heat will be transferred through the pipe wall to the water leading to the water heater. After a sufficient residence time in the solar desalination plant, the grass clippings are broken down and desalinated. The clippings will then fall from the bottom of the unit into a bag to be sent to a waste collection site, or directly onto the ground for further desalination, and then bagged for waste collection, or used by the homeowner as a soil amendment. The clippings bagged and picked up by the waste collection will then be briquetted using existing processing techniques. After briquetting, the straw can be burned in a boiler with coal. Since these grass pieces have been properly desalted, the problem of chromium deposition in the boiler has been solved and should not be a problem. The benefits of this approach are numerous. First, carbon neutral energy can be used to generate electricity. Second, the grass clippings are transferred from the landfill. Third, residential hot water is produced using a smaller carbon footprint. Fourth, additional economic activities and employment are created for the economy.

Furthermore, waste heat from factories, power plants, furnaces, etc. can and should be used to provide space heating, hot water and steam by using heat exchangers. For example, waste heat from a gas furnace or gas water heater can be used to preheat water going to the water heater.

Ethanol production at power generation sites

In addition to deploying the present invention (hybrid clean energy unit), another proposal involves establishing an endothermic process at the power generation site, such as ethanol fermentation capability. In doing so, ethanol production will require a percentage of the heat of electricity generation throughout the year, and by using the present invention (hybrid clean energy unit) will reduce the amount of fossil fuel required for thermal energy. During the colder months of the year, it may be desirable to reduce ethanol production so that heat energy can be redirected to the present invention (hybrid clean energy unit). In this year, power generation will proceed as before, except that less fossil fuel will be required due to increased ethanol production capacity and mixed clean energy units and significantly less waste heat will be released into the environment. In addition, the produced ethanol and food products will be available for sale to the market.

A third method includes adding only endothermic process capacity, such as ethanol production capacity, to the power generation site. In this case, the waste heat from the power generation will be used to drive the fermentation process. In doing so, waste heat generated by power generation is reduced and valuable liquid fuel is produced.

Another proposal includes deploying energy storage and power generation equipment for power generated by a hybrid clean energy unit collocated near a conventional power generation facility.

Another proposal includes deploying energy storage and power generation equipment for power generated by conventional power generation facilities.

It is important to note that a variety of materials can be used for ethanol fermentation. Some crops can be used for ethanol fermentation. Waste from some crops can be used for ethanol fermentation. Food waste and waste paper can be used for ethanol fermentation, rather than dumping in a landfill. Cardboard and wood waste can be used for ethanol fermentation. The grass clippings can be used for ethanol fermentation. Biomass can be used for ethanol fermentation, and fig. 3 shows how solar energy can be used to lyse biomass; this ability is very important because the use of solar energy to crack biomass can greatly improve the sustainability of the process of producing ethanol from biomass. Without this capability, the use of biomass is quite limited because the fossil fuels for ethanol production using prior art technology are more than ultimately obtained from ethanol combustion.

In view of this new role in the conversion of paper and plastic into fuel, paper and plastic manufacturers would ideally produce these materials in a manner that would be most beneficial to the chemical process of converting paper and plastic into fuel. For example, the plastic articles may not require some of the additives currently used in their manufacture, which may impair the potential of upgrading these plastic articles to fuels.

Some of the materials mentioned in the preceding paragraph are recyclable. The fact that only a small portion of these recyclable materials are actually recycled; if not, its fate is a landfill. Thus, the second and third methods provide a useful and reliable need for some recycled products that would otherwise be dumped in landfills.

Residential production of ethanol

As described above, the solar heat collecting embodiments 10, 11 can collect solar energy to be directly used as heat or electricity. Residences and their residents also produce large quantities of waste biomass, including food waste, grass clippings, and the like. There are some situations where liquid fuel is explicitly required. One specific implementation of this approach includes integrating the energy output from the solar heat collection examples 10, 11 with a residential scale ethanol unit, as schematically shown in fig. 3. Small residential processes for producing ethanol present many challenges in terms of sustainability, economy, feasibility and safety.

Cellulosic ethanol is of great interest because of its inherent sustainability advantages. However, this process requires too much energy to crack the biomass using existing technology to make it feasible at the residential level. In doing so, the sustainability of ethanol production from biomass is greatly improved, as sunlight is now being used in the high energy intensive steps of the process instead of using fossil fuels of the prior art. In doing so, the input energy to the process is greatly reduced, so the overall process is now much more economically favorable.

In the fermentation process 200 of fig. 3, biomass from multiple sources is aggregated together and ready for processing in a biomass preparation step 202. In a batch mode, biomass is introduced into a fermenter with water and a fermentation medium (usually yeast). As is well known, the fermentation process 204 produces an aqueous ethanol solution, carbon dioxide, and solid waste. Carbon dioxide is separated as it is produced and it may be used in one or more greenhouse units that form part of a sustainable energy dwelling unit. The liquid may be drained or pumped out to a conventional distillation unit 206 and the remaining solids in the fermentor may be moved to a unit 208 dedicated to solids reuse. The solids will comprise yeast biomass and the like. Depending on the composition, the solids may in some cases provide a food source for livestock or domestic animals and after drying, where heat from a solar heat collection unit is typically used for drying, the solids may be a fuel that is burned to provide heat or to emit steam using a conventional process. The reuse of solids in unit 208 may be particularly effective when the biomass feed from biomass preparation unit 202 to fermentation unit 204 is of a uniform nature. For example, if the biomass is a good source of starch/sugar, such as grain, the remaining solids will be well suited for feeding poultry, swine or livestock. Waste heat from a variety of sources can be used to dry the spent grain exiting the fermentor.

Currently, residential operation of distillation unit 206 may violate local, state, or federal regulations. A simple solution may be to require that ethanol is rendered unsuitable for human consumption by the addition of chemical agents. Such agents are well known. For example, when ethanol is used as the engine fuel, methanol is the preferred chemical. In other cases, another agent that provides an off-taste to ethanol may be used. This step is important because, depending on the biomass used, the fermentation process may already contain sufficient methanol to render the fermentation product unsuitable for consumption. After distillation, the ethanol may be moved to the fuel storage unit 210 for subsequent use, which may include use as a stationary fuel or a mobile fuel. In an alternative to distillation, the ethanol may be concentrated using known membrane separation techniques.

It is clear that the cogeneration and fermentation concepts taught herein are easily extended. The installation may be carried out in a single household or building, two or three or more single households or buildings, or small or large warehouses or stores, or small or large factories or small or large commercial or residential buildings. The potential for the development of possible applications of these inventions is unlimited.

It is also important to note that any of the foregoing inventions may be augmented with energy storage and generation systems to provide a power backup system to homes, businesses, factories, commercial buildings, hospitals and/or warehouses in case of a main power source shutdown. The energy storage and generation system is highly scalable and very flexible for any application. Furthermore, the material used for such devices is air. Air is reusable, highly sustainable, environmentally friendly, and can be freely available in sufficient supply worldwide.

The use of sugars is well suited for residential production of ethanol, but the economics of ethanol is a considerable challenge. Since approximately 10-14 pounds of sugar are required to produce a gallon of ethanol, one feedstock accounts for $ 2.00 to $ 2.80 per gallon of ethanol, and nothing else is purchased. At the time of writing this article, gasoline is $ 2.00 to $ 2.25 per gallon. Therefore, the economic benefits of using sugar in the united states are certainly not optimistic. However, if ethanol fermentation activity is increased, the economic benefit of sugars may be better in central and south america. Perhaps the greater demand for sugars in central and south america may provide farmers in these areas with another commercial crop to replace plants used for the production of illegal drugs. Sugar is a problem in the united states. We have essentially changed our current dependence on foreign petroleum sources to foreign sugar sources.

The next idea I think of is corn. Again, economic benefits are uncertain because 2.8 gallons of ethanol require 1 bushel of corn. The current price of corn is $ 3.89 per bushel. Thus, the cost of one feedstock is $ 1.39 per gallon of ethanol, and nothing else is purchased. In addition, the use of corn raises food and fuel problems. In addition, the use of any other crop also triggers a food and fuel dispute.

At this time, the idea of waste streams emerges in the brain sea. In particular, several online websites discuss the use of ethanol waste, soda beverage waste, and food waste. There are many benefits to using these waste streams. First, they are really in line with the business of sustainable development. Second, economy and feasibility are good. Third, the use of these items for residential ethanol diverts these waste streams from landfills where they will eventually be converted to methane, which only contaminates the air. Security is the last issue. Any act of using a distillation process to separate ethanol from water poses a risk; however, this risk can be addressed by appropriate use of process risk analysis and some common knowledge. Finally, it may also be tragic that food waste is in sufficient supply in the united states. According to worldfoodusa.org, about "30-40% of the food supply is wasted", which is equivalent to 20 pounds of food per month per person ".

The process layout for residential bioethanol is presented in fig. 3. The required equipment is essential. The general concept is to hire an operator to perform the actual operation at least 5 days per week and leave the resident with less than 1 hour per week on saturday and sunday. The operator will collect food waste at least 6 days per week, run the process on monday through friday, collect ethanol product, perform maintenance, and ensure that the process is running. There is an additional opportunity for automation; however, the cost and complexity also increase. Ethanol waste may be distilled, soda beverage waste may be fermented, and starchy food waste requires first hydrolysis, followed by fermentation, and then distillation.

The implementation of a residential ethanol production system of this type will require several items of equipment, including (for illustration purposes) a distillation plant, drying equipment (preferably solar powered) for the preparation of distillers meal, open covered buckets for the preparation of mash, air locks and agitators, a gas collection system for collecting carbon dioxide released during fermentation, a yeast autoinoculator, and a reflux still, preferably heated by waste heat from cogeneration.

Such a system would also require the ability to transport and remove the cereal product.

To the extent such systems use waste food products from restaurants, bars, grocery stores, and other food waste collection locations, it would be desirable to hire and train waste stream collectors to know the food waste needed and not needed and which bin to use for each waste stream (preferably to avoid high salt food waste).

During practice, the food waste will be collected and delivered by reducing the size to provide a consistent quality of the raw material.

Once delivered to the residential site, the new or "virgin" food waste will be processed to be saccharified by the hydrolysis cycle and inoculated with yeast for fermentation. At least from this point of view, the process should be as automated as possible. After about 12 hours, the inoculated mash should be fermentable. The barrel containing the mash can be rotated in the system, wherein the barrel is cleaned before being used again. The ethanol content of the mash may be automatically monitored, or the specified amount of fermentation time may be selected based on the conversion rate and schedule of the process operator. The distillers meal can be transported out of the compost or sold as animal feed or fertilizer.

The fermented mash is then distilled and, if desired, processed to a higher ethanol content using molecular sieves, which can be regenerated as needed.

To the extent possible, waste heat generated by trucks used in the transportation and pickup process can be used to dry food waste, distillers grains, and regenerate molecular sieves.

One of the clean-emissions routes for automobiles being considered is the replacement of gasoline with natural gas. Natural gas has many benefits over gasoline as a transportation fuel; however, its implementation in the gasoline burning society is very slow. When a natural gas fuel supply is available, people will purchase natural gas cars; however, when natural gas vehicles are manufactured and sold, fuel supply stations will become available. Dual fuel gasoline/natural gas vehicles offer the opportunity to transition to natural gas, but this transition is not welcomed by the public. Even with such conversion, the compression of natural gas into compressed natural gas remains a problem.

As the carbon dioxide levels and glaciers discussed above melt, a need has arisen for a sustainable fueling of vehicles with natural gas without vehicle challenges, natural gas compression challenges, and natural gas fueling infrastructure challenges.

Storage of excess energy

In many systems that harvest solar or wind energy, transient energy generation rarely matches transient energy usage. When electricity is not being generated sufficiently, the user needs to input energy, typically from the grid; and when surplus power is generated, the surplus power may be output to the grid. In the latter case, it is necessary to provide the excess power as a "clean" alternating current signal synchronized in frequency and voltage to the grid signal. In many cases, the excess energy may be in the form of thermal energy, or, if stored in a conventional battery, in the form of direct current.

In addition, the production of large batteries may cause severe damage to the environment due to elements such as cobalt and lithium used to produce the batteries.

For at least these reasons, the preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a system that the inventors prefer to refer to as an "air motor" or an "air cell" as shown in the schematic of fig. 4. In this system 300, the provided equipment comprises a volume reduction unit 302 and an expander 304, preferably in the nature of a turbine. One or more storage units 306 are also provided. The input energy 308 may be generated in a variety of forms, but it is typically excess energy, as may be generated by a solar thermal device (such as the units 10, 11 of fig. 1). The input energy 308 may also be provided by the ethanol production fermentation 204 of fig. 3, the combustion of solids from the solids reuse 208 of fig. 3, and other sources. If the input energy 308 is used to operate the volume reducing unit 302, a compressible fluid (such as air) may be compressed and stored in one of the storage units 306 until such time as energy is needed. When this occurs, the compressed fluid is sent to an expander 304 where expansion of the fluid operates a generator, providing output energy 310. The expanded fluid, especially when it is air, may be vented to the atmosphere. Many embodiments of the volume reduction unit 302 will be a conventional compressor, however, alternatively, known techniques may be used to liquefy air and, in some cases, to separate air into component gases for particular uses. Furthermore, while the use of air as the working fluid may be preferred, other gases separate from air may be used due to availability of supplies and the ability to vent gases without affecting the environment. However, the main advantage of using air is that the process remains "open" at each end, i.e. there is no need to maintain a supply of uncompressed gas, which would require a significant capital investment.

The output energy 310 may be utilized in a variety of ways. However, one obvious use is to use energy as input energy to distillation unit 206 of fig. 3.

Fossil fuel usage in typical suburban households

The inventors are typical residents of the midwest united states. Our home is in a suburban area. The inventor lives in a house approximately 2600 square feet, with five residents, four cars and four car drivers. The home provides electrical service for domestic electricity demand and air conditioning, and natural gas service for stoves, hot water and fireplace inserts. At installation, high efficiency HVAC equipment and appliances are purchased and installed.

The inventor proposes a method for sustainable use of natural gas instead of gasoline. The method includes installing a 1-9kW domestic cogeneration unit powered by natural gas, but the cogeneration unit can be fuelled by many other fuels. Waste heat from the cogeneration unit is used for hot water and space heating in the winter months and this waste heat is used to provide the thermal energy required for fermenting sugar or equivalent feedstock into ethanol in the summer months. Depending on the location of the home and on any arrangement made by the operator, an underground storage tank may be required to store the ethanol for later use. Instead of using gasoline powered cars, homes will use plug-in hybrid cars equipped with supplemental batteries and an internal combustion engine capable of running on gasoline or E95. Furthermore, the batteries in the cars will be mounted in interchangeable modular units, so that each car has an appropriate power storage capacity suitable for its respective daily commute. Furthermore, the batteries in these vehicles will be located in the trunk for flexible use of the vehicle.

In a conventional work and activity schedule, the automobile will be powered primarily by electricity generated from natural gas and ethanol. During a vacation or a major trip, the battery in the trunk may be removed and the car will become a hybrid powered vehicle powered by E95 and/or gasoline. Depending on the cost of the battery and the cogeneration unit, a high voltage may be generated to quickly recharge the least amount of the battery, or a regular voltage may be generated to recharge perhaps more batteries more slowly. With conventional voltages, the automobile will require longer recharging, and/or will have to switch out of the battery module while in the vehicle, and/or will have to employ additional battery modules. The main benefit of using electricity for commuting mostly in automobiles is the reduction of automobile exhaust emissions in urban areas, which will significantly improve air quality once the invention is highly adopted. Another design aspect of the hybrid vehicle of the invention has emerged. Many mining techniques for various chemicals used in battery production have significant, serious, and detrimental long-term effects on the environment. Thus, the use of batteries in plug-in hybrid vehicles has negative environmental impacts, which may be unanticipated and/or unknown to many potential automobile purchasers.

To solve this problem, the hybrid vehicle of the invention requires another power system. The inventors propose to use liquid nitrogen or liquid storage and air driven systems instead of or in addition to batteries. The liquid nitrogen or liquid air will be heated by waste heat from conventional fossil fuel or ethanol engines. Upon heating, the liquid nitrogen or liquid air will vaporize and a very significant volume expansion will occur. The volumetric expansion will provide energy to power a conventional air motor, or possibly a turbine, which may be located at the rear of the vehicle. Horsepower from such nitrogen-driven or air-driven engines can be used to provide all-wheel drive to the vehicle using a viscous coupling power train that I believe has become very widely used by Schlumberg. However, other methods of transferring this energy to the wheels of the vehicle may be utilized. A second alternative is to couple the generator to a nitrogen or air driven motor. The generator will generate a power supply that will power the electric engine used in conventional hybrid vehicle architectures; this approach allows automobile manufacturers to take advantage of the recent developments in automobile electrification while still allowing the size of the battery pack to be reduced, which has proven to be a significant design issue in these vehicles due to the cost, weight, limited life and negative environmental impact of these batteries.

Vaporized nitrogen or vaporized air can be safely vented to the atmosphere because it originates from the atmosphere; nitrogen or air is therefore used as an environmentally friendly energy carrier. Alternatively, liquid air or liquid nitrogen may also be co-fed to a conventional internal combustion engine, similar to the practice of adding liquid water to aircraft engines for additional voyages during world war ii.

It is important to note that the above-described method of using nitrogen and air as energy storage media would be well suited to provide energy storage capability for renewable energy sources. The excess electrical energy can be directed to a cryogenic air separator or liquefier that will produce a cryogenic liquid that can be used later when power generation is desired. In california, the use of a cryogenic air separator or liquefier would help to address the problem of excessive power supply that occurs during the day, when solar power plants are currently able to provide excess power that is not currently needed in the market.

It is very important to note that the ideal site for the cryogenic air separator would be a fossil fuel power generation site. Liquid nitrogen and other valuable components in the atmosphere can be transported to the market; however, liquid oxygen can be used to burn fossil fuels at the site of power generation. If a given power facility uses only oxygen to burn fossil fuels, the emissions from the facility will be almost entirely carbon dioxide and water. The discharge stream, which contains mainly carbon dioxide and water, can be separated by simply condensing water vapor from the carbon dioxide or absorbing water from the medium from the carbon dioxide.

The carbon dioxide stream can then be used to make a variety of products, including but not limited to all kinds of blow molded plastics, polyurethanes, rubbers, and acrylics, as well as fire extinguishers using carbon dioxide and carbonated soda water. Furthermore, the carbon dioxide and the water stream may be partially supplied to a hybrid clean energy unit.

As an alternative, the cryogenic air separator or liquefier may be manufactured on a residential scale, so that a household, with or without a cogeneration plant, can also generate its own liquid nitrogen or liquid air for its vehicle in its residence. Thus, a home using this technology will be able to produce its own electricity, liquid nitrogen and/or liquid air, ethanol and/or space heating and hot water. Many supply options will allow competition in the marketplace and will help ensure that customers are not only limited to a single supply source.

In many embodiments of the present invention, the interchangeable battery module for the hybrid vehicle of the present invention will help to power other items surrounding the house, such as a battery backup powered drain pump, lawn mower, snow blower, air blower, wire trimmer, pruning saw, trouble light, drill or electric saw.

It is important to note that the motor functions for a long time. Furthermore, the motor does not require much service and is easier to start. Finally, many small fossil fuel engines tend to produce dirty emissions and are often noisy.

Alternatively, liquid nitrogen or liquid air storage and power generation systems may be wired into an electrical circuit to provide backup power for mission critical equipment in homes, offices, factories, small or large businesses, farms, hospitals, and/or warehouses.

Furthermore, storage tanks and circulation pumps for the hot process water and/or heat transfer fluid will be needed to buffer the waste heat from the cogeneration unit in order to meet the domestic thermal energy demand. Finally, a control system would be required to operate all of these devices in order. It is important to note that the house will also have a furnace and a hot water tank that are fired with natural gas, if desired. Furthermore, the house will have an electric air conditioner powered by a cogeneration unit or a power company. Further, the house will have electrical connections from the utility that allow power to flow from the grid to the house and from the house to the grid. Such an electrical connection will provide additional energy to the house to meet peak demand and will avoid the need for a domestic energy storage unit. However, if such a connection is not available, a domestic energy storage unit may be included. Furthermore, the cogeneration unit will be equipped to sense power outages and provide the necessary energy to the home during the power outages.

Indeed, the home has been equipped with a number of device upgrades. However, vehicles in the home are now fueled by natural gas in a sustainable manner. Furthermore, the accompanying electronic form details the fact that the use of domestic energy using this method is reduced by a factor of about 2 and that burning more than 200mcf of natural gas reduces the heat generated by the waste heat to the environment. Generates 1,000,000Btu per mcf of natural gas, which greatly reduces waste heat. Apartments, condominiums, office buildings and other facilities may all use this method to produce similar results.

Discussion of economics

For illustrative purposes, the inventors have prepared an economic estimation that applies this concept to a five-family dwelling house that resides in a 2600 square foot house. Of the five residents, four residents driven vehicles.

The house is currently estimated annual energy cost $ 10,010 based on:

air conditioner power usage $ 500;

the furnace uses natural gas and electricity (to power the blowers) $ 700;

miscellaneous electricity usage $ 1,900;

hot water heater (natural gas) $ 300;

fuel for four vehicles $ 3,600;

heating and cooling maintenance $ 256; and

vehicle maintenance $ 2754.

With the application of the concept, annual energy costs will be estimated as:

air conditioning power usage $ 95;

the furnace uses natural gas and electricity (to power the blowers) $ 502;

miscellaneous electricity usage $ 906;

hot water heater (natural gas) $ 0 (system off);

fuel for four vehicles $ 1050;

heating and cooling maintenance $ 256; and

vehicle maintenance $ 2165.

These costs amount to $ 4974. However, implementing a cogeneration system for a dwelling is expected to increase the annual cost of ownership by $ 5375 (as described in more detail below), thereby bringing the annual cost to $ 10,349.

Vehicle fuel cost reduction is based on operating the vehicle on electricity generated by a cogeneration unit at a rate equivalent to an estimated 6 gallons of gasoline per day for 240 days per year. As described below, the cost of conversion from gasoline to electric vehicles is included in the annual cogeneration cost.

The annual cost of ownership of the cogeneration unit is based on the cost of purchase, interest, maintenance, and incremental costs. As noted above, capital costs are estimated at $ 86,000, financing 3% annually for 20 years, and total costs at $ 137,600. Of these, $ 30,100 is depreciated, and the remaining $ 107,500 will be amortized over 20 years, $ 5375 per year.

The capital cost of $ 86,000 is divided into three costs: $ 51,000 for purchasing, installing, and maintaining a cogeneration system; incremental cost of vehicle refitting is $ 30,000; and the incremental cost associated with the heating system is $ 5000. Those latter costs include $ 3300 for the thermal storage system and control system, $ 400 for the pump, $ 500 for the heating pipe coil, and $ 800 for the water heater sink coil.

According to the inventors' estimates, an indoor or roofed swimming pool having a surface area of about 10 feet by 20 feet can use heat from the cogeneration unit to maintain the water temperature at about 20F above ambient temperature. If a resident prefers such a pool rather than ethanol production capacity, the resident may use such a pool from about late 5 to mid 9 months, depending on the weather.

Another proposal includes residential ethanol production driven at least in part by solar energy. In this proposal, ethanol fermentation will be carried out at a particular site during the warm months of the year using the method discussed previously, and the heat input for fermentation will be provided by a solar thermal plant.

Sustainable air conditioner and sustainable power generation

As mentioned above, a series of complicated causes of global warming, also known as climate change, must be addressed as quickly as possible. It is easier to understand how waste heat emissions cause warming rather than greenhouse effect. It is more difficult to understand how the higher levels of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere contribute to the greenhouse effect and thus to global warming. However, the term greenhouse effect has existed for a long time.

Although carbon dioxide is of great concern, other gases may have greater impact. Of particular note are the presence of many fluorinated hydrocarbons. Global warming potential ("GWP") is defined as the ratio of the time-integrated radiation compelling of an instantaneous release of 1kg of a tracking substance to a generation of 1kg of a reference gas. In the following table, "HFC-134 a" is 1,1,1,2 tetrafluoroethane (CH)₂FCF₃) Also known as FREON 134a, "HFC-23" is trifluoromethane (CFH)₃) "HFC 125" is pentafluoroethane (C)₂HF₅) "PFC 14" is tetrafluoromethane (CF)₄) "PFC 116" is hexafluoromethane (C)₂F₆) And SF6 is sulfur hexafluoride (SF)₆). Although many of these compounds are used as refrigerants, the most common use of SF6 is as a dielectric. To demonstrate the effect of these gases, the method consists inwww.gov.ukThe data from various sources, including, provide the following pictures in tabular form:

fluorinated HC	The percentage of total FHC	GWP	GWP impact
				HFC-134a	58	1430	829.4
HFC-23	5	14800	740
				HFC-125	9	3500	315
HFC-152a	20	124	24.8
				PFC-14	5	9300	465
PFC-116	1	12200	122
				SF6	3	22800	684
Total FHC	101		3180.2

These data can be compared generally with other common greenhouse gases to determine their overall effect in the atmosphere, as follows:

greenhouse gases	The total amount of	GWP	Life in the atmosphere
				Carbon dioxide	82	1	For 100 years
Methane	10	36	12 years old
				Nitrogen dioxide	5	298	120 years old
Total FHC	3	3180.2	From weeks to 50,000 years
				Total greenhouse gas	100.

In view of these data, FHC (halocarbon) clearly may require more attention and action.

The montreal protocol banned these chemicals due to the deleterious effects of various FHCs on the ozone layer. Based on the information in the second table, another ban may be required. However, the current generation of FHCs is an important component of electrical air conditioners. Thus, ban on these chemicals will be virtually equivalent to ban on electric air conditioning, which is the most undesirable development in many parts of the world. Another alternative is needed and available. The cryogenic air separation unit is capable of separating air into any desired combination of components. Liquid carbon dioxide, alone or in combination with any mixture of inert gases, may prove to be a suitable refrigerant for air conditioning units. Another alternative consists in simply using a suitable combination of inert gases with or without nitrogen. Yet another alternative consists in using a suitable combination of inert gases containing nitrogen and containing or not containing carbon dioxide. Liquid oxygen may be used with any of these combinations; however, appropriate precautions need to be taken because oxygen is a powerful oxidant. In any event, the above chemicals provide a more sustainable and environmentally friendly feature to the environment than the current generation of fluorinated hydrocarbons. Furthermore, any of the above combinations will prove to be more sustainable and environmentally friendly than SF6 having a GWP of 22,800 (highest GWP in the first table).

Absorption chiller technology provides another viable alternative to electric air conditioners that use these problematic fluorinated hydrocarbons before further generations of fluorinated hydrocarbons (or other suitable refrigerants) have been developed and proven to be environmentally safe. The absorption refrigerator technology is not recognized as energy-saving as an electric air conditioner; however, absorption chiller technology no longer requires fluorinated hydrocarbons. Absorption chillers can be economical because they can be driven by natural gas or any fossil fuel, as well as heat from renewable energy sources. The sustainability of absorption chiller technology can be significantly improved by using solar heat collection with heat storage capability rather than using only natural gas to drive the units. This arrangement is particularly advantageous because the highest demand for heat by the absorption chiller occurs when the outside temperature is highest and the highest outside temperature may occur during the day when the sun is coming out. Thus, a solar heat collector will typically be most efficient during the hottest periods of the day when the absorption chiller unit requires the most air conditioning.

Initially, carbon dioxide as a refrigerant did not appear to be a good alternative to halocarbons, as its goal was to reduce the greenhouse effect. However, since carbon dioxide has a much lower GWP, is readily available in the environment, and is effectively sequestered when used as a refrigerant, it becomes a more attractive alternative when included in a closed loop system.

The use of absorption chillers in homes, offices, apartments, condominiums and commercial buildings is simple. Due to the weight of these units, the use of absorption chiller technology in automobiles can be problematic, even though the heat source driving these chillers is readily available in the automobile in the form of waste heat from the engine.

Another alternative is to use a liquefied gas tank in the car, which will be used to bring the car to a comfortable temperature during warmer months. Essentially, the liquefied gas will cool the air in the passenger compartment using a heat exchanger. When the liquefied gas provides cooling to the vehicle cabin, it will boil and the device will be designed to discharge the boil-off gas to the environment.

Ideally, the liquefied gas tank in an automobile would be sized so that it can be filled at a filling station when gasoline is needed. Alternatively, the liquefied gas can be delivered to homes and places of work, and can be refilled more frequently in those places, thereby enabling the use of smaller tanks in vehicles. Another alternative is to use liquefied gas for smaller air conditioning loads in homes, apartments, condominiums and offices. Yet another alternative is to deploy a residential size cryogenic air separation unit that is capable of providing at least liquid nitrogen and other desired liquid gases from the air.

If liquid nitrogen is used to cool automobiles and/or smaller real estate properties, the ideal location for the cryogenic air separation unit would be near a power generation facility using fossil fuels. By this siting arrangement, the liquid oxygen also produced by the process can be used by the generator for cleaner combustion of coal, biomass, fuel oil and perhaps even natural gas.

It does not seem necessary to use liquid oxygen for fossil fuel combustion; however, its use provides a number of advantages. First, nitrogen oxides present an air pollution problem. Air quality is improved if the emissions of fluorinated hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides are greatly reduced. Second, the exhaust emissions from fossil fuel facilities will be limited primarily to carbon dioxide and water vapor. Water vapor can be easily separated from carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide may be used for production purposes, such as enhanced oil recovery, or possibly as a blowing agent in insulation and/or foams. The foam may be made from the following new or waste materials: rubber, plastic, polyurethane, acrylics, polystyrene, polyvinyl chloride, polyethylene, polypropylene, water bottles, and the like. The water vapor may be condensed in a cooling tower and then distilled, if necessary, using waste heat generated by the power generation operation, so that it can reach a potable and/or acceptable level of integrity.

When these new innovations described above are deployed with hybrid clean energy power generation units, vehicle alternative fuel supply configurations, and scalable energy storage and power generation systems, our future will be more visible from a sustainability perspective. The overall impact of all these inventions will address the concerns of energy, food, water, clean air, climate change, space heating, hot water demand, energy storage, transportation and air conditioning and potential space travel, which will collectively require a smaller carbon footprint and will have more favorable negative environmental impacts than currently used technologies.

While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been shown and described, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that many variations and modifications may be made to implement the described invention, and yet remain within the scope of the claimed invention. Thus, many of the elements indicated above may be altered or replaced by different elements which will provide the same result and fall within the spirit of the invention as claimed. It is the intention, therefore, to be limited only as indicated by the scope of the claims.