Atmospheric vortex engine

1. A device for producing a vortex similar to one of a group consisting of dust-devils, waterspouts, and tornadoes, comprising an impervious vertical axis cylindrical wall of roughly circular cross section,

(a) wherein said wall is open at the upper end,

(b) wherein said wall has a plurality of air entries at the lower end,

(c) wherein the height of said wall is substantially less than the height of said vortex,

(d) wherein the height of said air entries is substantially less than the height of said wall,

(e) wherein a plurality of deflectors in said air entries direct the air entering the circular wall away from the radial direction and towards the tangential direction,

(f) wherein said deflector have a predetermined orientations relative to a line extending from said deflector to the axis of the cylindrical wall,

(g) wherein the quantity of air entering said circular wall is controlled with a plurality of adjustable restrictors located upstream of said deflectors,

(h) wherein the rotation of the air entering said circular wall is controlled by using said restrictors to channel the air through deflectors with the appropriate orientation,

(i) wherein the vortex is started by temporarily heating the air in said circular wall using fuel as the primary heat source,

whereby said vortex is used to produce mechanical energy, to produce electrical energy, to produce precipitation, or to improve the performance an associated cooling tower.

2. A device per claim 1, wherein fuel burners located within said circular wall provide temporary heating to start said vortex.

3. A device per claim 1, wherein there are conduit means for bringing heated gaseous fluid within said circular wall to provide temporary heating to start said vortex, wherein said heated gaseous fluid is produced in a fired apparatus located outside said device; and wherein said heated gaseous fluid is selected from the group consisting of heated air, steam, furnace flue gas, and gas turbine exhaust.

4. A device per claim 1, wherein said deflectors have adjustable orientations.

5. A device per claim 1, wherein said deflectors have fixed orientations.

6. A device per claim 1, wherein said device is divided into a plurality of airtight sectors, wherein the flow of air into said sector is controlled with restrictors located at the upstream end of said sector, and wherein the there is a set of deflectors with a predetermined orientation located at the downstream end of said sector.

7. A device per claim 1, wherein the air entering the circular wall is unheated ambient air, and wherein the heat content of ambient air is sufficient to sustain the vortex once established.

8. A device per claim 1, wherein the heat content of the air entering the circular wall is increased in a continuous heat transfer mean located upstream of the deflectors.

9. A device per claim 8, wherein the heat source for said continuous heat transfer mean is selected from the group consisting of waste heat from power plants, waste from other industrial processes, and other low temperature heat sources.

10. A device per claim 8, wherein the heat source for said continuous heat transfer mean is a natural source of heat selected from the group consisting of warm sea water, warm fresh water, warm solar heated brine, and warm brine.

11. A device per claim 8, wherein said continuous heat transfer means is selected from one of the groups consisting of wet cooling towers, dry cooling towers, and other heat exchangers.

12. A device per claim 11, wherein the cooling tower consists of a plurality of cooling tower bays with a plurality of passageways between said bays, wherein each bay and each passageway is part of an airtight duct between an upstream set of restrictors and downstream set of deflectors.

13. A device per claim 11, wherein the cooling tower is made up of a continuous circular ring divided into a plurality of sectors, wherein each bay is part of an airtight duct between an upstream set of restrictors and a downstream set of deflectors.

14. A device per claim 11, wherein the water circuit consist of two concentric circular rings, wherein the water in the inner ring is warmer than the water in the outer ring, whereby counter flow heat exchange is used to improve heat usage.

15. A device per claim 1, wherein a plurality of peripheral turbines located upstream of the deflectors are used to produce mechanical energy.

16. A device per claim 15, wherein the peripheral turbines drive a plurality of electrical generators to produce electricity.

17. A device per claim 15, wherein the turbine have inlet nozzles, wherein said inlet nozzles are used to produce kinetic energy for capture by the turbine blades and wherein the said inlet nozzles are the restrictor mean for controlling the quantity of air entering said device.

18. A device per claim 15, wherein the peripheral turbines have fixed nozzles and rotating blades like the expander stages of axial flow gas turbines.

19. A device per claim 1, wherein there is a single level of deflectors at the lower end of the circular wall.

20. A device per claim 1, wherein there are two levels of deflectors at the lower end of the circular wall to provide independent control of the quantity and direction of the air in a lower and an upper layer.

21. A device per claim 20, wherein the lower deflectors direct the air more radially than the upper deflectors to prevent centrifugal force from opposing convergence in the lower layer, so that the pressure upstream of the lower deflectors tend to approach the pressure at the base of the vortex.

22. A device per claim 20, wherein there are damper means of selecting whether the air flowing in the upper set of deflectors is air that has gone through the heat exchanger mean.

23. A device per claim 20, wherein there is an impervious annular roof with a circular opening at its center to separate the lower and the upper air layers.

24. A device per claim 1, wherein friction flaps, located on the floor of the area enclosed by the circular wall, are used to reduce circulation and to reduce the centrifugal force in the boundary layer; whereby convergence in the bottom layer of air is enhanced.

25. A device per claim 24, wherein the height of said friction flaps is a function of distance from the center of the circular wall.

26. A device per claim 1, wherein the diameter of the cylindrical wall varies with height.

27. A device per claim 1, wherein there is a hump in the center of the floor of the circular wall, whereby said hump helps keeps the vortex in the center of the cylindrical wall.

28. A device per claim 1, wherein the majority of the deflectors are oriented to produce counter-clockwise rotation wherein some of deflectors produce clockwise circulation, wherein the net circulation of the air entering the circular wall can be reduced by restricting the flow to the sectors producing counter-clockwise rotation and opening the flow to the sector sectors producing clockwise rotation, wherein the vortex can be stopped by reducing the net circulation, and the same for the opposite direction.

29. A device per claim 1, wherein hot gas, selected from a group consisting of furnace flue gas, gas turbine exhaust gas, and industrial waste heat is introduced continuously into the circular wall to enhance the vortex.

30. A device per claim 8, wherein dirty gas, selected from a group consisting of furnace flue gas, gas turbine exhaust gas, and industrial waste heat is injected continuously in the cooling tower, wherein the cooling water circuit is used to remove pollutants from the flue gas, and wherein pollutants are removed from the water circuit during water treatment.

31. A method of initializing and controlling a vortex similar to one of a group consisting of dust-devils, waterspouts, and tornadoes comprising:

(a) providing the air converging towards the base of said vortex a tangential component of velocity by having the air enter a roughly circular area via generally tangentially oriented entries,

preventing ambient wind from disturbing the vortex with a vertical axis circular wall,

(c) controlling the quantity of air entering the circular area with restrictors located upstream of the tangential air entries,

(d) ensuring that the air converging towards the base of said vortex has sufficient heat content to be buoyant as it rises through the ambient air by one of a group consisting of using air with a naturally occurring high heat content and providing heat to the air in heat exchange devices located upstream of the tangential entries,

ensuring convergence towards the center of the circular wall by providing an annular roof with a circular opening in its center,

wherein energy may be produced via turbines located upstream of the tangential entries, wherein the said turbines do not come in direct contact the said vortex, and wherein the energy is derived mainly form the heat content of the rising air and not from the kinetic energy of pre-existing wind.