Our lives can be better!
Thursday, January 29, 2009
Monday, December 29, 2008
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Explaining the principles of gravity powered transportation
While speaking to a group of eminent persons, the inventor said the following.
Detailed specification in US Patent application number: 12184151 dt. 07/31/2008 provides more information regarding the "Gravity Powered Rail, Road and Runways transportation systems".
The principle is rather simple and ancient too. Look at the pendulum When pulled to one side not too much but by a little , the slight rise in its height from its first rest position in the middle of swing, it starts to swing, coming down in the process, the mass attached to the string gaining velocity in horizontal direction, converting the potential energy in to kinetic energy by the time the mass reaches the mid point of swing, it has only kinetic energy and a velocity in the horizontal direction.
But as the mass moves beyond under its momentum, it starts to experience the gravitational force as resistance to rise and the kinetic energy gets consumed raising the mass almost to the same extent of height relative to the position at mid point of swing.The mass comes to a stop and the reverse journey starts. This we all know.
An interactive working model to appreciate the principles.
But what is important to realize is the efficiency of energy conservation- unlike the case of mechanical energy to electrical energy and back to electrical energy for the purpose of recovery in linearly oscillating systems like transportation, where we get only 30% recovery, in case of gravitational force we recover more than 99%!
So we can design a transportation system where a heavy set of vertically moving masses in a Gravity Power Tower, connected through variable gears and power transmission cable attached to a rolling unit in horizontal direction, to start the rolling unit from rest and accelerate to the desired speed, by allowing the heavy masses to move down under gravitational force of attraction. So while moving down the heavy masses give out energy and the rolling unit gains kinetic energy.
Now imagine we reversed the gear direction in such a manner that instead of the heavy masses going down while the rolling unit is moving forward, the rolling unit to move forward it has to pull up the heavy masses against gravity. Then the kinetic energy of the rolling unit is taken away by the heavy masses in the tower, by rising back to a position very close to its original starting point, while the rolling unit comes to a stop. So we can travel in the rolling unit taking energy to speed up and then giving out energy while stopping. But the entire process involves pure gravitational force and no electro-magnetic forces like electrical energy used.
In very simple terms the principle is described. The control and management, is through knowledge embedded microprocessors and the system has distributed intelligence managing various operational parameters as human control cannot match the response times needed. But this uses low power electronics.
But remember the friction losses in rolling cannot be recovered, and this appears as the small gap between the original position of the driving heavy masses and the recovered position in the Tower. This 5% or 10% of the energy is what is to be made up using electrical motors. Thus we save substantial quantum of energy usage in transportation. Since friction losses are critical, rail based systems deliver the best results.
We can power the roads too to run cars without the IC engines using electromagnetic coupling for power transmission from road to the car , details are described in specification. But the where the energy savings come down to around 50% because of higher friction losses between rubber tires and road surface as well the freedom that a driver wants to decouple from the powered road and stop away from the road. But carbon emissions can be totally eliminated. The existing roads and rail infrastructure can be used with speeds of 60 mph.
Hope I am able to explain the principle- it is not complex particle physics but classic Newton's laws we still use to launch our space probes successfully. If it works of space it can work on our plane too, you will agree.
Then the projects are financially viable to give return on investment of the order of 30 to 40 % while creating a million sustainable jobs. As the capital is recovered and interest burden vanishes with the cash surpluses, the charges are reduced to maintenance and depreciation which is minimum being totally automated and using inflation proof free energy. One of my objects in life's work has been transportation should be practically free for every human born on the planet, which I believe is now a reality.
My dream is we ourselves should enjoy the beautiful planet using the free gift of the nature which is eternal inexhaustible gravitational force without polluting the planet and leave a clean wonderful place for our progeny.
I appreciate your time and concern. But Sir, let me assure you, it is our life and it is we who should cause this change. One should not underestimate the formidable barrier which Einstein described; you may doubt if universe is infinite or not but human stupidity definitely is.
Detailed specification in US Patent application number: 12184151 dt. 07/31/2008 provides more information regarding the "Gravity Powered Rail, Road and Runways transportation systems".
The principle is rather simple and ancient too. Look at the pendulum When pulled to one side not too much but by a little , the slight rise in its height from its first rest position in the middle of swing, it starts to swing, coming down in the process, the mass attached to the string gaining velocity in horizontal direction, converting the potential energy in to kinetic energy by the time the mass reaches the mid point of swing, it has only kinetic energy and a velocity in the horizontal direction.
But as the mass moves beyond under its momentum, it starts to experience the gravitational force as resistance to rise and the kinetic energy gets consumed raising the mass almost to the same extent of height relative to the position at mid point of swing.The mass comes to a stop and the reverse journey starts. This we all know.
An interactive working model to appreciate the principles.
But what is important to realize is the efficiency of energy conservation- unlike the case of mechanical energy to electrical energy and back to electrical energy for the purpose of recovery in linearly oscillating systems like transportation, where we get only 30% recovery, in case of gravitational force we recover more than 99%!
So we can design a transportation system where a heavy set of vertically moving masses in a Gravity Power Tower, connected through variable gears and power transmission cable attached to a rolling unit in horizontal direction, to start the rolling unit from rest and accelerate to the desired speed, by allowing the heavy masses to move down under gravitational force of attraction. So while moving down the heavy masses give out energy and the rolling unit gains kinetic energy.
Now imagine we reversed the gear direction in such a manner that instead of the heavy masses going down while the rolling unit is moving forward, the rolling unit to move forward it has to pull up the heavy masses against gravity. Then the kinetic energy of the rolling unit is taken away by the heavy masses in the tower, by rising back to a position very close to its original starting point, while the rolling unit comes to a stop. So we can travel in the rolling unit taking energy to speed up and then giving out energy while stopping. But the entire process involves pure gravitational force and no electro-magnetic forces like electrical energy used.
In very simple terms the principle is described. The control and management, is through knowledge embedded microprocessors and the system has distributed intelligence managing various operational parameters as human control cannot match the response times needed. But this uses low power electronics.
But remember the friction losses in rolling cannot be recovered, and this appears as the small gap between the original position of the driving heavy masses and the recovered position in the Tower. This 5% or 10% of the energy is what is to be made up using electrical motors. Thus we save substantial quantum of energy usage in transportation. Since friction losses are critical, rail based systems deliver the best results.
We can power the roads too to run cars without the IC engines using electromagnetic coupling for power transmission from road to the car , details are described in specification. But the where the energy savings come down to around 50% because of higher friction losses between rubber tires and road surface as well the freedom that a driver wants to decouple from the powered road and stop away from the road. But carbon emissions can be totally eliminated. The existing roads and rail infrastructure can be used with speeds of 60 mph.
Hope I am able to explain the principle- it is not complex particle physics but classic Newton's laws we still use to launch our space probes successfully. If it works of space it can work on our plane too, you will agree.
Then the projects are financially viable to give return on investment of the order of 30 to 40 % while creating a million sustainable jobs. As the capital is recovered and interest burden vanishes with the cash surpluses, the charges are reduced to maintenance and depreciation which is minimum being totally automated and using inflation proof free energy. One of my objects in life's work has been transportation should be practically free for every human born on the planet, which I believe is now a reality.
My dream is we ourselves should enjoy the beautiful planet using the free gift of the nature which is eternal inexhaustible gravitational force without polluting the planet and leave a clean wonderful place for our progeny.
I appreciate your time and concern. But Sir, let me assure you, it is our life and it is we who should cause this change. One should not underestimate the formidable barrier which Einstein described; you may doubt if universe is infinite or not but human stupidity definitely is.
Saturday, November 29, 2008
Gravity Powered Dedicated Freight Corridor for Indian Railways 29 Nov 2008
Seed Newsvine
Indian Railways are working on an important economy boosting infrastructure namely, the Dedicated freight Corridor-- A gravity Powered Dedicated Freight Corridor is worked out, along with project costs and returns expected. Saves 87% of energy in operations and primarily uses gravitational force to deliver cargo at a steady speed of 100kmph with handsome returns too. it can handle 160m tonnes annually in the first phase and has enough capacity to double if needed. A one page summary may be perused.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
Energy independence , creating jobs & carbon credits!
Human effort should be such that we create wealth and not just spend. We must be able to create such assets which will keep on serving humanity at reducing cost of operation and maintenance while the initial capital cost too is the least. Energy independence and living with nature in unison and not in confrontation are primary requirements for sustainable development. Having said that, we cannot leave these words mere empty sayings. I do have an energy solution which meets these requirements. It is simpler than wind/solar energy and very economical more reliable , in fact as reliable as the earth itself. it is the gravitational force- unfortunately the solution is so simple and verifiable at the school graduate level with the result the esoteric scientists who want to operate at levels beyond common man's understanding , do not find glamor to consider and publicize.
The impact on world's energy scene with gravity powered towers is tremendous- using less than 3% of current consumption of energy, that means saving 97% of energy . we can move billions of tonnes of cargo all over USA day and night irrespective of climatic factors using only gravitational force- which is free from recurring energy costs, there is no generation or distribution costs. So year over year except for depreciation charges of the simple mechanical gears and cables in towers located every half a mile, the operation and maintenance costs drop.The 3% of energy requirement is at the Gravity Power Tower to make up for short fall in energy recovery of the moving masses, due to friction losses and this can be from solar/wind or even grid electrical power. How does it generate employment? Though in operation the rolling units with loads are all automatically handled, improving safety and made free from human errors, observers and supervisors at every tower will be needed to step in when a rare incident occurs to rectify and set the system on go. During construction, which is basically railroad construction technology, which could be elevated, on surface or sub-way, we do need employment in much larger numbers. Within USA we can construct a 100,000 mile network to start with kick starting the project in the first two years, to be completed within 4 years, the results start flowing within one year. There is no new research involved in implementing the technology. I estimate we need about 50,000 towers and linking rail track systems along with rolling stock, all of which will need an investment of US$150b and employing about a million persons of different categories from semi-skilled to highly skilled engineers including a few micr-processor experts. What are the benefits when we complete the project?
1. USA can stop importing more than 5 to 6 million barrels of oil per day starting from 3rd year, and at the end of fourth year almost 8 millions of barrels of oil per day can be saved.
2. Close to 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon emissions can be stopped and the carbon credits can be used to expand the network further. So practically the network will grow without further capital investment.
3. The million jobs created can be sustained by growing network and the maintenance requirements.
4. The cost of transport obviously drops, and makes tremendous difference to economy by making available cheaper goods and services to consumers.
5. All urban transportation can be taken over gravity powered sub-way system following the existing roads, with access at half a mile, attaining speed of 120 kmph, and average speed of 60 kmph, needing less than 5% of energy consumed today on rail.
6. Coast to coast and port to hinterland cargo movements become practically free transportation with gravitational force driving the system like a pendulum based clock work mechanism, needing less than 3% of current level of energy.
What action is needed to get this benefit?
This is US invention: US Patent 12154181 dt 07/31/2008. Patent pending.
I am grateful to God for the inspiration. Now I look for a visionary world leader to have self-confidence to examine what I say, and have just enough courage to announce support and initiate the construction of the first mile for the industry and business houses to jump in to take it forward. Actually the entire funding may then come from private investments! More importantly this development is without tears. No land will be needed to be acquired, as we follow the medians or shoulders of existing highways. It is also an environment friendly solution so will have support from all. We will involve all universities and engineering bodies to execute and not to keep conducting research with a distant dream of something turning up in near future. We change now the energy scenario in the matter of transportation. I can do it and deliver within first six months the world's first Gravity Power Towers, for which all technologies are available in USA - we need only variable gear transmissions, cable drums, steel cables and concrete structures. with intelligence embedded microprocessors certified to CENELEC standards. But to to take the first step we need a courageous leader who should at least give time to examine and and then convince himself to commit totally to the new world powered by Gravity!
The impact on world's energy scene with gravity powered towers is tremendous- using less than 3% of current consumption of energy, that means saving 97% of energy . we can move billions of tonnes of cargo all over USA day and night irrespective of climatic factors using only gravitational force- which is free from recurring energy costs, there is no generation or distribution costs. So year over year except for depreciation charges of the simple mechanical gears and cables in towers located every half a mile, the operation and maintenance costs drop.The 3% of energy requirement is at the Gravity Power Tower to make up for short fall in energy recovery of the moving masses, due to friction losses and this can be from solar/wind or even grid electrical power. How does it generate employment? Though in operation the rolling units with loads are all automatically handled, improving safety and made free from human errors, observers and supervisors at every tower will be needed to step in when a rare incident occurs to rectify and set the system on go. During construction, which is basically railroad construction technology, which could be elevated, on surface or sub-way, we do need employment in much larger numbers. Within USA we can construct a 100,000 mile network to start with kick starting the project in the first two years, to be completed within 4 years, the results start flowing within one year. There is no new research involved in implementing the technology. I estimate we need about 50,000 towers and linking rail track systems along with rolling stock, all of which will need an investment of US$150b and employing about a million persons of different categories from semi-skilled to highly skilled engineers including a few micr-processor experts. What are the benefits when we complete the project?
1. USA can stop importing more than 5 to 6 million barrels of oil per day starting from 3rd year, and at the end of fourth year almost 8 millions of barrels of oil per day can be saved.
2. Close to 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon emissions can be stopped and the carbon credits can be used to expand the network further. So practically the network will grow without further capital investment.
3. The million jobs created can be sustained by growing network and the maintenance requirements.
4. The cost of transport obviously drops, and makes tremendous difference to economy by making available cheaper goods and services to consumers.
5. All urban transportation can be taken over gravity powered sub-way system following the existing roads, with access at half a mile, attaining speed of 120 kmph, and average speed of 60 kmph, needing less than 5% of energy consumed today on rail.
6. Coast to coast and port to hinterland cargo movements become practically free transportation with gravitational force driving the system like a pendulum based clock work mechanism, needing less than 3% of current level of energy.
What action is needed to get this benefit?
This is US invention: US Patent 12154181 dt 07/31/2008. Patent pending.
I am grateful to God for the inspiration. Now I look for a visionary world leader to have self-confidence to examine what I say, and have just enough courage to announce support and initiate the construction of the first mile for the industry and business houses to jump in to take it forward. Actually the entire funding may then come from private investments! More importantly this development is without tears. No land will be needed to be acquired, as we follow the medians or shoulders of existing highways. It is also an environment friendly solution so will have support from all. We will involve all universities and engineering bodies to execute and not to keep conducting research with a distant dream of something turning up in near future. We change now the energy scenario in the matter of transportation. I can do it and deliver within first six months the world's first Gravity Power Towers, for which all technologies are available in USA - we need only variable gear transmissions, cable drums, steel cables and concrete structures. with intelligence embedded microprocessors certified to CENELEC standards. But to to take the first step we need a courageous leader who should at least give time to examine and and then convince himself to commit totally to the new world powered by Gravity!
Friday, November 21, 2008
Gravitons can move goods and people on surface rail saving 97% of energy!
EXTRACTS FROM A RESEARCH PAPER BY BOJJI R : RESULTS OF A COMPUTER MODEL.
5.2 Case of Gravity Power Towers located at 450m , with zero coasting length and peak speed of 108 kmph, acceleration at 2m per sec. For a rolling unit of 50T and driving mass of 1000T. Level and straight track chosen.
Table 1 Summary of results for transportation drawing energy from the Tower.
5.3 The results are summarised in the Table 1 under. The time taken is 30 seconds , average speed 54 kmph. The variable n(j) during acceleration, tand n(l) during deceleration, the tractive and braking force are plotted in the Figure 2.
Figure: 2 Constant acceleration case with variable gear.
5.4 More importantly the energy recovered is 97.7 % approximately- which means we need less than 2.3% of man made energy ; in other words we have opportunity to save more than 97 % of energy which we currently are using from fossil fuels! With this speed profile, Figure 3, urban transport with stops within 500m can be created, practically powered by free, eternal energy which is pollution free- that is gravitational force driven.
Figure 3 Speed profile for the 108 kmph short haul case.
5.5 It is beyond the scope of this paper to describe complete engineering details for implementing in field, but it is necessary to note that surprisingly for such a significant alternate source of energy to be availed, it is not as complicated or complex as it is in case of wind or solar power. Only variable gear transmissions readily available in industry, cable drums to roll up and down the vertically moving masses, endless thin steel cable transmission running around pulleys, sounding more like old world technologies, except for microprocessor based low power driven electronic intelligence to initiate or stop certain connecting gears form the components of the Gravity Power Towers. The rolling stock and railway track are substantially the existing ones, even simpler because there are no prime movers mounted on the stock, it is merely hauled by the cable. Hence the risk of technology complexity for quick realisation is practically little.
5.6 For long distance travel without coasting length, such speed profile can cause concern of human comfort. In such a case accepting saving of 60-70% levels of saving, Fig. 4, we can work out high speed travel option with coasting
Figure 4. Effect of coasting length on energy recovery.
length. But for transport of goods this can be a boon. Billions of tonnes of cargo in containers can be transported across globe on surface, saving more
than 97% of currently used energy.
SO gravitons can provide all the energy eternally to move billions of tonnes of cargo to any point on earth, on rail, using only 3% of current energy consumption. This has very high impact on reducing global warming and controlling climate change. For USA alone it is estimated that close to 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon emissions can be avoided annually.
5.2 Case of Gravity Power Towers located at 450m , with zero coasting length and peak speed of 108 kmph, acceleration at 2m per sec. For a rolling unit of 50T and driving mass of 1000T. Level and straight track chosen.
Table 1 Summary of results for transportation drawing energy from the Tower.
5.3 The results are summarised in the Table 1 under. The time taken is 30 seconds , average speed 54 kmph. The variable n(j) during acceleration, tand n(l) during deceleration, the tractive and braking force are plotted in the Figure 2.
Figure: 2 Constant acceleration case with variable gear.
5.4 More importantly the energy recovered is 97.7 % approximately- which means we need less than 2.3% of man made energy ; in other words we have opportunity to save more than 97 % of energy which we currently are using from fossil fuels! With this speed profile, Figure 3, urban transport with stops within 500m can be created, practically powered by free, eternal energy which is pollution free- that is gravitational force driven.
Figure 3 Speed profile for the 108 kmph short haul case.
5.5 It is beyond the scope of this paper to describe complete engineering details for implementing in field, but it is necessary to note that surprisingly for such a significant alternate source of energy to be availed, it is not as complicated or complex as it is in case of wind or solar power. Only variable gear transmissions readily available in industry, cable drums to roll up and down the vertically moving masses, endless thin steel cable transmission running around pulleys, sounding more like old world technologies, except for microprocessor based low power driven electronic intelligence to initiate or stop certain connecting gears form the components of the Gravity Power Towers. The rolling stock and railway track are substantially the existing ones, even simpler because there are no prime movers mounted on the stock, it is merely hauled by the cable. Hence the risk of technology complexity for quick realisation is practically little.
5.6 For long distance travel without coasting length, such speed profile can cause concern of human comfort. In such a case accepting saving of 60-70% levels of saving, Fig. 4, we can work out high speed travel option with coasting
Figure 4. Effect of coasting length on energy recovery.
length. But for transport of goods this can be a boon. Billions of tonnes of cargo in containers can be transported across globe on surface, saving more
than 97% of currently used energy.
SO gravitons can provide all the energy eternally to move billions of tonnes of cargo to any point on earth, on rail, using only 3% of current energy consumption. This has very high impact on reducing global warming and controlling climate change. For USA alone it is estimated that close to 3.5 billion tonnes of carbon emissions can be avoided annually.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Appeal to all heads of States on our planet
An appeal to world leaders to adopt Gravity Power in transportation systems and save 70% of energy from non-renewable sources !
Use of fossil fuels with carbon emissions is warming the planet, and economy is getting shocks of increasing oil prices because of increasing demand and dwindling supplies. Hoarding of oil or building up reserves for future security needs by nations is a typical response apart from playing war games to keep the oil rich countries under political control. Then again oil rich countries tend to exploit the supply-demand mismatches, to their advantage while in the markets too veiled speculation in the name of market forces playing out their games, hike up the oil prices at the advent of a storm or gale or any unrest occurring near oil production facilities. The roller coaster ride that the rest of the world has to manage with such spikes is not very healthy for economies of many a nation.
The requirements of energy and the sources typically for the world shows that hardly 5 to 6% of the energy is from renewable sources! Almost 88% of energy is from fossil fuels and non-renewable sources.
A breakthrough in technology has been long over due. It has now happened. In USA a patent application ( 12184151) has been filed on 31st July 2008, titled “Gravity Powered Rail, Road and Runways Transportation Systems”
Gravity remained an enigma since Newton formulated the equations describing its characteristic behavior of attraction but it remained unexplored. But we used gravity in as high level water storage tanks to supply water, and hydro-power in water falls, to generate electricity. For inter planet travel and trajectory control too gravity plays an active role. So it is not that gravity is strange in powering our lives.
In earlier war history trebuchet is another good example of gravity releasing a burst of energy to launch a projectile to hit a wall of a fort.
Why we should not use the same gravitational force to drive in a controlled manner a rolling mass on wheels in a generally horizontal direction? It is easy to to make a mass moving down vertically under gravity force, through a pulley and gear system to be connected to a rolling mass on wheels, and move the same from rest to a desired speed! Similarly when a rolling mass approaches with a speed the kinetic energy of the same can be recovered by lifting the mass up vertically against gravity. The Gravity Power Tower is the means configured in the patent application to make it possible for vertically moving set of multiple masses, driving, in generally horizontal direction, rolling massses or receiving the same, either giving out gravity power or gaining back potential energy.
In a nutshell the principle is explained and the components are also shown for the Gravity Power Tower. The full technical details of engineering the same are beyond the scope of this paper.
Suffice to say the Power mass Modules work as gravity energy saving, delivering and recovering energy sub-systems. There is intelligence controlling the entire process.
The Gravity Power Towers are highly complex knowledge embedded systems, network with each other physically linked by pairs of transport guide ways, and communicate with other towers as well as the controllers on the rolling masses getting transported in between the towers. This information exchange allows active power control and management system to keep the rolling masses transported at the desired speeds, recover close to 70% of energy back, and make up also the hysteresis /resistance losses using electrical motors in the towers.
Maturity of technology:
Is the technology of Gravity Power Tower mature enough or research is needed? The answer is evident if we check which technologies are involved: variable power transmission systems, gear/pulley arrangements, high speed end less looping cable systems are all known technologies; only parametric adoption is needed which is a design effort. The knowledge embedded systems are microprocessors based programmable systems working with a number of transducers like velocity and force monitors and electro-mechanical interfaces to start or stop the gear systems, or operate compressed air release valves on the rolling stock and similar mundane activities at critically important times in a reliable manner. These are all traditional areas well established in the industry and no new research is needed- except to make a few proving runs for the first prototypes. In fact the level of technology complexity is such that most of the developing countries will be able to handle themselves except for knowledge embedded systems- which also quite a few countries have adequate skill to develop.
The Gravity Powered Rail will have:
1. No locomotives nor traction motors on rolling stock nor any current collection systems like pantographs and catenary or third rail; so no recurring costs of repairs and maintenance of the motive power units.
2. Only a flywheel storage for emergency use on the rolling stock unit, which also gets charged by Gravity Power Tower which through high speed power transmission cable accelerates/ sustains/ decelerates the rolling unit
3. There are no drivers nor visible signals- energy levels control the speed profiles and built in intelligence makes the entire transportation automatic.
4. Speeds of 360 kmph for fast intercity travel, or urban transport at peak 80kmph with stops at 1km, or freight movement at 120 kmph carrying 50 million tonnes per a route per annum - handled by the Gravity Powered Rail.
5.Existing conventional rail can be converted into Gravity Powered Rail and one can have new advanced urban rail transport in sub-way, surface or elevated in cities as desired.
The Gravity Powered Road will have:
1.The cars have no conventional IC engines- replaced by flywheel storage and a battery pack with an electromagnet fitted power arm.
2.The Gravity Powered Road will have speed denominated road lanes, 30,70,100 kmph or as desired .
3.The car driver starts with battery pack and after reaching the low speed lane switches on the electromagnet, which gets coupled with the power transmission cable running in the middle of the lane, and provides tractive force energizing the flywheel and battery pack too. The driver can shift to the speed lane he desires by decoupling from one lane and move to the next lane accelerating for this purpose using the flywheel energy, and again couples with that lane's power transmission cable.
4. Finally he gets out of the lane to go to parking lot using his stored energy from flywheel and battery pack.
5. In this case recovery of energy by the Gravity Power Towers is minimal and the only advantage is that inefficient working of IC engines within city roads and resulting pollution is avoided, with gravity power as well as even on highways, the use of oil is avoided using gravity power. The Gravity Towers will have to recover using electrical energy during off peak load periods.
The Gravity Powered Runways :
1. There is a mid strip on the runway as well as on taxiways with power transmission cable embedded with steel coupling plates running.
2. The aircraft has special extended arm with an electromagnet which can couple or decouple as pilot orders, using which the plane reaches the head of the runway.
3. Once in position and Pilot gives a go ahead, and switches on his electromagnet coupling,
4.While landing the process gets reversed, transferring the energy to Gravity Power Tower.
Impact of Gravity Power Towers:
Now for costs and impact on energy scene of a nation. Take USA as an example.
For every Mwh of gravity power delivered by Gravity Power Tower, we need 30% as electrical energy to recoup. Depending on the source of electrical energy this will vary. The basic infrastructure cost to provide the gravity tower is really comparatively quite low.
Another beauty of gravity power is the cost of power is as used at tractive effort level- whereas in other cases the cost does not include the cost of locomotive, traction distribution arrangements etc.
So how does it affect the dependence of a nation on oil imports by adopting Gravity Power Towers?
USA can avoid importing 8m barrels of oil with an investment of $150b ; this equivalent to the entire oil export of Saudi Arabia! While oil fields may dry up, Gravity Power is eternal and non-polluting!
Case of India:
India is the world’s eleventh-largest energy producer, with 2.4 percent of energy production, and the world’s sixth-largest consumer, with 3.5 percent of global energy consumption. Domestic coal reserves account for 70 percent of India’s energy needs. The remaining 30percent is met by oil, with more than 65 percent of that oil being imported. Demand for energy is expected to double by 2025; by then, 90 percent of India’s petroleum will be imported. ( Source CSIS Washington DC Sept. 7 , 2006)
Generally transportation consumes 30% of total energy; so 70% of this can be replaced with Gravity Power Towers and rest 30% drawn from solar/wind power, because with Gravity Power Towers, the cost falls to 1/3rd. So Gravity Power Towers will increase total energy from renewable sources to 30% of total energy on the planet, at the current cost of electrical energy per unit to the user.
Since for India about 30% of energy is met from oil which mainly goes to transportation, Gravity Power Towers can make a world of difference by almost eliminating oil imports.
A policy initiative needs to be taken by the states to promote Gravity Power.
Rajaram Bojji
Fellow of National Academy of Engineering India. 20 Sept., 2008
GRAVITY POWER IS A NEW REALITY
Use of fossil fuels with carbon emissions is warming the planet, and economy is getting shocks of increasing oil prices because of increasing demand and dwindling supplies. Hoarding of oil or building up reserves for future security needs by nations is a typical response apart from playing war games to keep the oil rich countries under political control. Then again oil rich countries tend to exploit the supply-demand mismatches, to their advantage while in the markets too veiled speculation in the name of market forces playing out their games, hike up the oil prices at the advent of a storm or gale or any unrest occurring near oil production facilities. The roller coaster ride that the rest of the world has to manage with such spikes is not very healthy for economies of many a nation.
The requirements of energy and the sources typically for the world shows that hardly 5 to 6% of the energy is from renewable sources! Almost 88% of energy is from fossil fuels and non-renewable sources.
A breakthrough in technology has been long over due. It has now happened. In USA a patent application ( 12184151) has been filed on 31st July 2008, titled “Gravity Powered Rail, Road and Runways Transportation Systems”
Gravity remained an enigma since Newton formulated the equations describing its characteristic behavior of attraction but it remained unexplored. But we used gravity in as high level water storage tanks to supply water, and hydro-power in water falls, to generate electricity. For inter planet travel and trajectory control too gravity plays an active role. So it is not that gravity is strange in powering our lives.
In earlier war history trebuchet is another good example of gravity releasing a burst of energy to launch a projectile to hit a wall of a fort.
Why we should not use the same gravitational force to drive in a controlled manner a rolling mass on wheels in a generally horizontal direction? It is easy to to make a mass moving down vertically under gravity force, through a pulley and gear system to be connected to a rolling mass on wheels, and move the same from rest to a desired speed! Similarly when a rolling mass approaches with a speed the kinetic energy of the same can be recovered by lifting the mass up vertically against gravity. The Gravity Power Tower is the means configured in the patent application to make it possible for vertically moving set of multiple masses, driving, in generally horizontal direction, rolling massses or receiving the same, either giving out gravity power or gaining back potential energy.
In a nutshell the principle is explained and the components are also shown for the Gravity Power Tower. The full technical details of engineering the same are beyond the scope of this paper.
Suffice to say the Power mass Modules work as gravity energy saving, delivering and recovering energy sub-systems. There is intelligence controlling the entire process.
The Gravity Power Towers are highly complex knowledge embedded systems, network with each other physically linked by pairs of transport guide ways, and communicate with other towers as well as the controllers on the rolling masses getting transported in between the towers. This information exchange allows active power control and management system to keep the rolling masses transported at the desired speeds, recover close to 70% of energy back, and make up also the hysteresis /resistance losses using electrical motors in the towers.
Maturity of technology:
Is the technology of Gravity Power Tower mature enough or research is needed? The answer is evident if we check which technologies are involved: variable power transmission systems, gear/pulley arrangements, high speed end less looping cable systems are all known technologies; only parametric adoption is needed which is a design effort. The knowledge embedded systems are microprocessors based programmable systems working with a number of transducers like velocity and force monitors and electro-mechanical interfaces to start or stop the gear systems, or operate compressed air release valves on the rolling stock and similar mundane activities at critically important times in a reliable manner. These are all traditional areas well established in the industry and no new research is needed- except to make a few proving runs for the first prototypes. In fact the level of technology complexity is such that most of the developing countries will be able to handle themselves except for knowledge embedded systems- which also quite a few countries have adequate skill to develop.
The Gravity Powered Rail will have:
1. No locomotives nor traction motors on rolling stock nor any current collection systems like pantographs and catenary or third rail; so no recurring costs of repairs and maintenance of the motive power units.
2. Only a flywheel storage for emergency use on the rolling stock unit, which also gets charged by Gravity Power Tower which through high speed power transmission cable accelerates/ sustains/ decelerates the rolling unit
3. There are no drivers nor visible signals- energy levels control the speed profiles and built in intelligence makes the entire transportation automatic.
4. Speeds of 360 kmph for fast intercity travel, or urban transport at peak 80kmph with stops at 1km, or freight movement at 120 kmph carrying 50 million tonnes per a route per annum - handled by the Gravity Powered Rail.
5.Existing conventional rail can be converted into Gravity Powered Rail and one can have new advanced urban rail transport in sub-way, surface or elevated in cities as desired.
The Gravity Powered Road will have:
1.The cars have no conventional IC engines- replaced by flywheel storage and a battery pack with an electromagnet fitted power arm.
2.The Gravity Powered Road will have speed denominated road lanes, 30,70,100 kmph or as desired .
3.The car driver starts with battery pack and after reaching the low speed lane switches on the electromagnet, which gets coupled with the power transmission cable running in the middle of the lane, and provides tractive force energizing the flywheel and battery pack too. The driver can shift to the speed lane he desires by decoupling from one lane and move to the next lane accelerating for this purpose using the flywheel energy, and again couples with that lane's power transmission cable.
4. Finally he gets out of the lane to go to parking lot using his stored energy from flywheel and battery pack.
5. In this case recovery of energy by the Gravity Power Towers is minimal and the only advantage is that inefficient working of IC engines within city roads and resulting pollution is avoided, with gravity power as well as even on highways, the use of oil is avoided using gravity power. The Gravity Towers will have to recover using electrical energy during off peak load periods.
The Gravity Powered Runways :
1. There is a mid strip on the runway as well as on taxiways with power transmission cable embedded with steel coupling plates running.
2. The aircraft has special extended arm with an electromagnet which can couple or decouple as pilot orders, using which the plane reaches the head of the runway.
3. Once in position and Pilot gives a go ahead, and switches on his electromagnet coupling,
4.While landing the process gets reversed, transferring the energy to Gravity Power Tower.
Impact of Gravity Power Towers:
Now for costs and impact on energy scene of a nation. Take USA as an example.
For every Mwh of gravity power delivered by Gravity Power Tower, we need 30% as electrical energy to recoup. Depending on the source of electrical energy this will vary. The basic infrastructure cost to provide the gravity tower is really comparatively quite low.
Another beauty of gravity power is the cost of power is as used at tractive effort level- whereas in other cases the cost does not include the cost of locomotive, traction distribution arrangements etc.
So how does it affect the dependence of a nation on oil imports by adopting Gravity Power Towers?
USA can avoid importing 8m barrels of oil with an investment of $150b ; this equivalent to the entire oil export of Saudi Arabia! While oil fields may dry up, Gravity Power is eternal and non-polluting!
Case of India:
India is the world’s eleventh-largest energy producer, with 2.4 percent of energy production, and the world’s sixth-largest consumer, with 3.5 percent of global energy consumption. Domestic coal reserves account for 70 percent of India’s energy needs. The remaining 30percent is met by oil, with more than 65 percent of that oil being imported. Demand for energy is expected to double by 2025; by then, 90 percent of India’s petroleum will be imported. ( Source CSIS Washington DC Sept. 7 , 2006)
Generally transportation consumes 30% of total energy; so 70% of this can be replaced with Gravity Power Towers and rest 30% drawn from solar/wind power, because with Gravity Power Towers, the cost falls to 1/3rd. So Gravity Power Towers will increase total energy from renewable sources to 30% of total energy on the planet, at the current cost of electrical energy per unit to the user.
Since for India about 30% of energy is met from oil which mainly goes to transportation, Gravity Power Towers can make a world of difference by almost eliminating oil imports.
A policy initiative needs to be taken by the states to promote Gravity Power.
Rajaram Bojji
Fellow of National Academy of Engineering India. 20 Sept., 2008
GRAVITY POWER IS A NEW REALITY
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