Energy production with a tubular propeller turbine

Abstract

Micro-hydropower is a way of improving the energetic efficiency of existent water systems. In the particular case of drinking water systems, several studies have showed that pressure reducing valves can be by-passed with turbines in order to recover the dissipated hydraulic energy to produce electricity. As conventional turbines are not always cost-effective for power under 20 kW, a new energy converter is studied. A five blade tubular propeller (5BTP), assessed through laboratorial tests on a reduced model with a diameter of 85 mm diameter and a maximal output power of 300 W, is addressed in this work. Having showed promising potential for further development, since global efficiencies of around 60% were observed, the turbine has been further used to estimate the potential for energy production in a real case study. A sub-grid of the drinking water system of the city of Lausanne, Switzerland, has been used to obtain an annual energy production through hourly simulations with several turbines.