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Air at ambient temperature is pulled through a
counter-current system in a tower, receiving heat
from a source of waste heat, so that almost all the
waste heat is passed into the tower's air, with the
air
at the bottom of the tower being the hottest (and
the
original "fluid" - whatever
it was, is coolest at the
same point).
Tethered air filled nylon bags, similar to wwii
parachutes, are receiving the
heated air, and
pulling upwards on a tethered line, which raises a
weight.
Once the weight reaches a certain height, it is
released running a pump or electric generator.
It is assumed here that concentrating the energy
along one single tethered line is a process efficient
enough to get a good amount of useful work from
waste heat at 55-75C.
The original Hullaballoon
http://bz.pair.com/fun/hullaballoo.html
From the finest halfbaker ever, remembered on the web [pashute, Dec 12 2012]
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As long as it is possible for heat to flow from a higher temperature toward a lower, it is possible to extract some energy from that flow. Don't expect to capture a lot, though. |
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In this case, the rate at which air inside the balloon cools, through contact with the gas bag and the cooler air outside, will affect how much lift you can get. |
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Most hot-air balloons dump a lot of heat quickly into the gas bag, to overcome that sort of heat-loss. You might have trouble getting any lift at all. |
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The bags volume must be huge for this to work |
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This is essentially a batched, or packeted, version of a thermal updraught generator. With those, the air moves while the balloon (canopy and tower) remains stationary. |
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I would suggest that the problems of efficiency and scale would be similar (or worse), and the manufacturing costs greater, so you are unlikely to break even. |
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[+] different principle of course, but it would resemble a sideways hullaballoon. |
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Rather a lightweight Stirling engine. |
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The weight is non-sequitur as long as you have at least two balloons equally spaced. |
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