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d.djairam o ewi.tudelft.nl).
A.N. Hubacz and J.C.M. Marijnissen are with the Nanostructure Materials particles. Most of these methods require a lot of energy and
Group, Delft University of Technology. (e-mail: a.n.hubacz atnw.tudelft.nl).
this means that it is more difficult to achieve a net gain in electrospray in a controlled manner due to its high surface
energy. In the EWICON, a stream of charged droplets is tension [4]. Unlike water, ethanol is perfectly sprayable using
created using a method called EHDA. EHDA is based on the EHDA, in the sense that size, velocity and charge distributions
principle that a strong electric field will deform the liquid are mono-disperse. Therefore, for research purposes, a
leaving a nozzle to a conical shape, see Fig. 1. Usually, this mixture of water and ethanol has been used.
field will be created using charging electrodes that are put on
B. Type A: Collector set-up
a certain voltage. At the cone apex a liquid jet with a high
charge density occurs. Depending on the direction of the In this configuration, shown in Fig. 3, the charging system
applied electric field i.e. the polarity of the voltage on the (electrodes + nozzles) responsible for the charged particles is
charging electrodes, the net charge will either be positive or connected to earth. After the charging system has produced
negative. There is a maximum charge that can be present on a the charged particles, the wind blows these charged particles
droplet before Rayleigh break-up occurs, which is the away towards an initially neutral collector that is electrically
breaking up of droplets into smaller droplets because of the isolated from earth. Consequently, the electric potential of this
electric stress associated with the charge. Using EHDA, collector will rise and have the same polarity as the polarity of
droplets can be charged up to 7000 of this Rayleigh limit. the charged droplets. Therefore, the collector will start to repel
the droplets and depending on the power of the wind, which is
related to the wind speed, the voltage of the collector will
reach a maximum. An electrical load can be attached to this
collector.
charged
droplets
wind collector
Fig. 1. An example of EHDA. Ethanol is sprayed under the influence of an
electric field which results in a stream of charged droplets. The droplets
all have the same polarity, which causes the expanding mist of droplets.
The size, charge and initial velocity as well as the rate at
which the droplets are ejected, all depend on the voltages on
the electrodes, the geometrical configuration of these
electrodes together with the properties and the flow rate of the
water. Having said that, one can imagine the numerous ways Fig. 3. Type A. The EWICON set-up with a separate collector to catch the
charged droplets. The collector needs to be isolated from earth, thereby
an EHDA configuration can be set up. One important aspect allowing the potential of the collector to rise.
for the EWICON is that such an EHDA set-up must be as
transparent for wind as possible. In this paper, we will discuss C. Type B: Set-up without collector
a five-nozzle set-up, shown in Fig. 2. Five needles are fed In this configuration, shown in Fig. 4, the charging system is
water by a pump, while some extra needles at each side are electrically isolated from earth. In this case, after the charging
placed to ensure electric field uniformiity at the five spraying system has produced the charged particles, the wind blows the
needle tips. particles away from the charging system. Due to this charge
movement away from the set-up, the electric potential of the
charging system rises, but with a polarity opposite to the
polarity of the charged particles. Therefore, there will be an
attractive force between the charging system and the charged
wind particles, which would decrease the stream of charged
droplets being removed from the set-up, thus decreasing the
net current. Again, the maximum voltage of the set-up that can
be reached is dependent on the wind power. Similarly, an
Fig. 2. Schematic overview of the multi-nozzle set-up. (a) side view, wind electrical load can be attached to the set-up.
coming from the left. (b) front view, wind coming out of the page. Water
is fed through the tubes to the needles (1) where EHDA is achieved
through the use of charging electrodes (2). The charged particles are then
blown away by the wind. A steering electrode (3) facilitates this process.
pump
HVXO CE
HV isolator load A N
HV
metal plate
Fig. 4. Type B. The EWICON set-up without a separate collector. The
charging system is isolated from earth. The droplets need to be removed
from the charging system. The earth acts as a collector, while the Fig. 5. The EWICON set-up in detail. Two HVDC sources are connected
potential of the charging system rises. to the charging and steering electrodes (CE and SE). A pump supplies the
D. Choice of set-up liquid to the nozzles. The nozzles are electrically connected to a metal
plate.
It is useful to note again the significance of the wind in these When the EWICON is operating, the wind takes away the
set-ups. Without the work of the wind, the charged particles charged particles. This stream of charged particles can be
would either be repelled by the collector (Type A) or be represented as a current. Since the liquid is initially
attracted by the charging system (Type B). In both cases, this electrically neutral, an opposite current IN will occur. If the
would mean the current created by the spraying process would metal plate is disconnected from earth, this current will charge
be nullified. This means the system cannot feed a load. the metal plate, resulting in an open output voltage Vopen. In
Type A's main advantage is that it is conceptually simple. the event that any of the charged particles will collide with
However, it requires a separate isolated collector, which one of the electrodes or the metal plate, a current will flow
means extra building material and effort. Also, due to the back and the charging effect will be partly neutralized
inherent chaotic character of the wind, a relatively large resulting in a lower output voltage. It is possible however to
collector needs to be built to ensure that most of the charged tune the system such that the current losses due to particle
droplets are caught and even then, there is no guarantee that collisions is practically zero. Lastly, a 20 GQ load was
all of the particles will be collected. attached to the metal plate and the current, IO, through this
Type B's main disadvantage is that the charging system load was measured.
needs to be isolated from earth. This means the charging
system is more complicated than the one used in a Type A set-
up. However, there is no need for a separate collector which III. EXPERIMENTAL RESULTS
simplifies the construction of the set-up. The fact that the
charged particles are not collected does mean, however, that Current at different flow rates 30% ethanol mixture
the particles are dispersed into the surroundings. Therefore, 2,00
from an environmental point of view, the particles cannot be 1 ,80
harmful or toxic. 1 ,60
water, this condition has been met. Also, during the feasibility z 1,20 + flowrate 0. 1 ml/hr
: 1 00 flowrate 0.5 ml/hr
testing period, it was found that using a Type B set-up resulted as
- 0,80 flowrate 10.Oml/hr
in very stable voltages compared to voltages achieved with a 0,60
Type A set-up. Therefore, the Type B set-up is more favorable 0,40
as a starting-point for further EWICON research. 0,20
0,00
E. Type B set-up using EHDA in detail 0,00 2,00 4,00 6,00 8,00
The actual implementation of the current EWICON is shown Vr, (kV)
schematically in Fig. 5, in which one HVDC source is used to Fig. 6. Results of current measurements obtained by electrospraying a
apply a voltage on the charging electrodes, VCE, which mixture with 30% ethanol and 70% distilled water.
controls the EHDA spraying process. The other HVDC source
is used to apply a voltage on the steering electrode, VSE, which Experiments have been conducted using different liquids
is used to grade the electric field in such a way, that the wind and various geometrical configurations of the charging and
can remove the charged particles more easily from the system. steering electrodes at a range of voltages. A turbine capable of
providing laminar air flow to a surface area of 0.1 m2 was * The EHDA process will be optimized. Currently,
used to simulate wind at 9 m/s. For each liquid flow rate, the water/ethanol mixtures are used to investigate the
VCE was gradually increased causing the current IN to increase behavior of the EWICON system. The final design
as well. At a certain voltage, leakage currents start to occur, will, preferably, be using water only. The
which to an extent can be minimized by varying the voltage of properties of the droplets that are sprayed will be
the steering electrode. Results for a measurement using a investigated and the results will be used to increase
mixture of 30% ethanol and 700o distilled water can be seen in the performance of the charging system. Currently,
Fig. 6. the net charge on the droplet is about 25-30%
These results can be used to determine the efficiency of the compared to the charge that can be present on a
set-up in converting the wind power into electrical power. droplet before Rayleigh break-up occurs [5]. Using
The expression for the power associated with the wind, Pw, EHDA, it is possible to attain percentages of 7000.
for an effective wind surface area, A, is * The possibility of packing the spraying nozzles
PW = I2*APa -v3(1) more closely will be investigated. It will be
in which Pa is the density of air (1.293 kg/m3 at 20 C) and v investigated whether and how an increase in
nozzles changes the immediate surrounding
is the wind speed. The output power in our 20 GQ load is
electric field and whether this adversely affects the
PO = I .RL (2) spraying. The first step, to this end, will be the
in which Io is equal to IN if there are no leakage currents. doubling of the concentration of nozzles.
Using equation (1) and (2) and assuming that no current leaks * The construction of the set-up will be examined
are measured, the efficiency 7 was calculated more closely in order to minimize the chances of
11= PO leakage currents.
(3)
PwI + PI
in which PI is the power needed to supply the liquid to the Optimizing the EHDA spraying process together with the
nozzles. If we take a measurement with a flow rate of 5 ml/hr doubling of the concentration could possibly lead to an
as an example, IN= 1.9 [tA. The set-up has an effective wind efficiency improvement by a factor of four, thereby
surface area, A, of 0.002 M2. This yields for the output power, approaching the average efficiency of conventional wind
Po = 65 mW. The power needed by the pump to supply the turbines. It has to be noted, that in the area of wind energy the
liquid to the nozzles, PI 1 mW. This leads to an efficiency, efficiency alone is not the key factor in determining the
7, of 700. Suggestions will be given to increase this number to usefulness of a wind energy device. Other factors, like the
comparable efficiency of conventional turbines. economic investments and the total energy yield in kWh, play
a central role in assessing the viability of such a device.
Secondly, to deliver an output power of 1000 W, the wind
IV. CONCLUSIONS surface area needs to be 12 mi2, if we further assume an
efficiency of 30% and a wind speed of 9 m/s. Therefore, the
The experiments show that the EWICON system in the set-up needs to be scaled up. The first step is to build a
current configuration is capable of generating electrical
prototype with a wind surface area of 1 M2.
energy from wind energy with an efficiency of at least 700.
The efficiency of conventional wind turbines, like e.g. a
Siemens 1.3 MW wind turbine, is roughly 4500 which still is ACKNOWLEDGMENT
six to seven times higher compared to the efficiency of the
current EWICON. The flow rate per nozzle needs to be above This project is supported with a grant of the Dutch
5.0 ml/hr, preferably 10 ml/hr, before EHDA can be used as Programme EET (Economy, Ecology and Technology).
an effective method for producing charged particles, which
puts a lower limit on the water consumption. Also, concerning REFERENCES
EHDA, it was found that the concentration of ethanol in water [1] Grace, J.M., Marijnissen, J.C.M., "A review ofliquid atomization by
electrical means", J. Aerosol Sciences 30 (7), 1005-1019.
should at least be 25% or higher for controlled spraying to [2] A.M. Marks, US Patent No. 4.206.396 and 4.433.248
occur. [3] R. Bodega, P.J Sonneveld, P.H.F. Morshuis, R. van Rooij, L.G.M van
Eldijk, "Conversion of wind into electrical energy without the needfor
movingparts", XIIIth International Symposium on High Voltage
Engineering, Delft, 2003.
V. PLANS FOR FUTURE WORK [4] J-P. Borra, R. Hartman, J. Marijnissen, B. Scarlett, "Destabilisation of
The goal of this research project is to build a prototype that sprays in the cone-jet mode by electrical discharges on the jet", J.
Aerosol Sciences, (Suppl. 1), S203-S204.
can deliver an output power of 100-1000 W. The approach to [5] EWICON progress reports, internal, 2004-2005.
achieve this goal is two-fold. First of all, the set-up needs to
be upgraded, meaning the efficiency should be increased. To
this end, a number of things will be done: