I don't remember if I contacted the university of lanchashire or not
in my sending out of info about the pump over the years.
But anyway, they are researching trompes for hydropower!
But not under the ground, Above!
Something very akin to what i called the mcguiver pump or syphon pump
way back in the late 80's. I used black plastic heavy downspout pipe
(about 3 inches diameter for my pump. The amount of air allowed in
was controlled by the speed of water THROUGH the pump with a valve at
the siphon EXIT. And in my experience, this worked pretty good. I
used a bicycle pump with the valve reversed to pump out the air to
start this pump. and that was a pain just like they said.
I cannot remember what I did to stop the whirlpools at the entry but
they were not a huge problem. Perhaps my entry was deeper than theirs?
And as always with hydro power, the central obsession is converting
it to electricity. but conversion always creates loss.
If possible, they might be able to use the vacuum directly for
something?
Anyway, please take a look. There are some figures there for the
efficiencys which suggest that a pulser pump with a decent head (not
a tiny half meter head like the ones i made) might be a lot more
efficient!
They also make some attempt to estimate the economic efficiency of
the system (for producing electricity) as opposed to a kaplan turbine.
And as I have always stated, economic efficiency and energy
efficiency are 2 very different things.
Other news. The Society for Amateur Scientists www.sas.org/
might be putting in a little article I did about how I came up with
the pulser pump in the upcoming couple of months (I just missed last
months deadline). (Lots of things do not happen but it looks likely!)
For me, this is very pleasing because some of those guys have done
some really IMPRESSIVE amateur science.
There is hope yet!
Brian White