General Enquires can be fowarded to WATER
Postal: PO Box 695
West Perth WA 6872
Em Telephone: +61 8 9381 2177
Fax +61 8 9486 4944
Introducing the Max Water
Water UN Limited was incorporated to acquire the
technology and intellectual property associated with water
from ambient air technology, also known as Ďthe Max Water',
from world renowned Perth based inventor Dr Max Whisson.
This breakthrough technology has the potential
to produce water from air using a turbine containing
refrigerants. If successful, this technology will be capable
of supplying commercial quantities of water for a wide variety
of uses powered by wind energy alone.
If successful the technology developed by Dr Max
Whisson may represent the most important breakthrough in water
production in recent years. The commercialisation of Max Water
may be by license, direct sales, distributor networks or a
combination of these. Under any marketing strategy a
percentage of units produced will be donated via appropriate
charitable organizations to supply water to areas of extreme
poverty in developing economies.
Our company mission is to now build the first
complete prototype and hopefully prove the concept.
Video : http://www.waterunlimited.com.au/video.html
Learn more about the Max Water : This
short presentation outlines how the Max Water may use only
wind power to cool the air and achieve condensation of the
contained water. It contains drawings, research and other
relevant statistical information. DOWNLOAD PDF (2.8 MB):
QuickTime Movie :
ABC Science Online
( Friday, 2 March 2007 )
Making Water Out of Thin Air
Could a wind turbine that sucks water out of the
air supply enough water for the whole world?
A wind-driven device could provide an unlimited
water supply by harvesting water from the air, says its
But critics are asking if it's too good to be
Dr Max Whisson, a retired medical specialist
turned inventor, says he has designed a highly efficient wind
turbine that can run a refrigeration system to cool air and
condense moisture from it.
"The wind carries in the water and [provides]
the power required to separate that water from the wind," says
Whisson, who is based in Perth.
He says there is a huge amount of water in the
atmosphere that is replaced every few hours. This means the
whole world could just use water from the air without
disrupting the environment.
Whisson says the system would even harvest
significant amounts of water in areas with low humidity.
He says a 4 metre square device could extract an
average 7500 litres of water a day.
In his design, moisture-laden air enters the
system and is cooled by a drop in pressure behind the wind
turbine blades, says Whisson.
The air then flows into a chamber containing
refrigerated metal plates covered by a non-wettable surface
that causes water droplets to run off immediately into a
Could it work?
Full technical details of the design are not
available but at least one mechanical engineer is sceptical.
"I have found in general that inventors tend to
enormously overstate the capacities of their devices. They
just have a very rosy outlook on what their devices will do,"
says mechanical engineer Professor John Reizes, an adjunct
professor at the University of New South Wales.
"It's not until you've made one that you
discover all the problems."
Reizes, who specialises in heat transfer, says
he is sceptical because of the huge amount of energy that is
needed to condense water.
Whisson says he is well aware that a large
amount of energy is required to do the job.
"It's like boiling a kettle in reverse," he
But he is confident his wind turbine, still
subject to patent applications and yet to be independently
tested, is efficient enough.
"The wind turbine is a surprisingly good
development. I'm surprised because it performs so well," says
And he says the power generating part of the
wind turbine can simply be increased to collect the wind power
required for the condensation process.
"We've got unlimited power," he says.
But Reizes says wind turbines are so far only
about 30% efficient at best and the energy arriving at them is
very diffuse, requiring large devices to collect the energy.
"It may be a fantastic idea on paper and it
looks as if it could work," he says.
"However, the thing may have to be so big to
drive this device that it becomes impractical."
Drawing moisture from air
One thing seems more certain. If the system does
work, it is unlikely to backfire on the environment, says Dr
Michael Coughlan, of Australia's Bureau of Meteorology.
He says the amount of water that humans would
use is trivial compared with the amount available in the
"If you can tap into it, then go for it, because
you would do little to upset the hydrological cycle," says
The Whisson Windmill - Water From Air,
...Dr Whisson himself describes his Whisson
Windmill as follows: "The essential principle is that more
wind is used for power than for water supply. In other words,
the area of power turbines is greater than the area of
turbines leading to water harvest. This is all made much
easier by the invention of a new kind of wind turbine or
'windmill'. The amount of water available in the air is for
all forseeable practical purposes unlimited. The bottom 1
kilometre (in the atmosphere) alone contains about
1.000,000,000,000,000 litres of water and that is turned over
every few hours. The "Whisson Windmill" or Max Water From Air
device will make it possible to get adequate water anywhere at
any time, drought or no drought."
Windmills of Your Mind
PROGRAM TRANSCRIPT: Monday, 21 May , 2007
JAMES O'LOUGHLIN: Hello, I'm James O'Loughlin from "The New
Australia has a long tradition of innovation, from the Hills
Hoist to the black box flight recorder, and our home grown
ideas have often found international markets.
Well, Perth inventor Max Whisson believes he may have come
up with a solution to the world's water problems and he has
some influential supporters. This is Max Whisson's story.
MAX WHISSON: The state of the world at the moment is, I
think, the most dangerous in the evolution of Homo sapiens,
for two main reasons. Power is almost entirely in the hands
of those who gained power by exercising commercial
advantage, and at the same time the ability of modern
technology to destroy the world is unprecedented. The
destruction of vast ecosystems is happening as we speak:
forests being destroyed, catchment areas being destroyed,
rivers being destroyed. We are a highly developed species,
can fly to the moon and do all sorts of clever things, and
we destroy the rivers all over the planet. I think itís
utterly absurd, outrageous. Grassroots action is the only
hope to get a healthy world community.
PROFESSOR ROGER DAWKINS, SCIENCE CENTRE DIRECTOR: I know
that some people think that Max is a crackpot but heís a
very engaging one and heís certainly a very productive one.
MARCUS WHISSON, SON: He can be a bit of a handful, heís an
eccentric old bugger, heíd probably say that himself.
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: I think Max is a reincarnation of an
ancient Roman, the Romans were wonderful at water.
MAX WHISSON: It took me a little while to realise that the
expanding population of the world cannot rely on surface
water which accumulates from rain. We have to find unlimited
sources of water and the sea seemed to me to be the obvious
source of vast quantities of water. Seventy-one per cent of
the Earthís surface at an average depth of four or five
kilometres, and I thought, how can you purify that water
without fossil fuels or big machines or high technology? And
sunlight seemed to be the obvious way. I came up with the
idea of the Water Road in about 2002 in a sort of Eureka
moment. Most places in need of water are far inland and it
would seem so logical to just run the sea water inland over
a long distance, producing pure water as it goes. The Water
Road is a very simple design. Itís just a series of parallel
black pipes, preferably to a width of about 10 metres,
covered in a transparent cover such as perspex or
polycarbonate, and maybe a thousand kilometres long. The sea
water heats to 70 or 80 degrees, by my calculation, in about
three to four days, heated by the sun, and at intervals the
sea water is run into big swimming pools that I call
evaporation ponds. The hot, wet air in the evaporation ponds
is ducted up to a hilltop where it just condenses in a
special condensation shed. So youíve got pure water produced
at a high point and that greatly assists the distribution to
irrigation or to households along the way. A pipeline of
that size would produce about 200,000 litres per kilometre
per day. The salt from the returning sea water goes back to
the sea where itís diluted within minutes to normal sea
water. But it could be sent to a salt manufacturer.
COLIN BARBOUTIS, BUSINESS PARTNER: When Max first mentioned
the Water Road to me, I thought, this could be an answer for
the water problem that weíre going to have in Perth in the
very near future. Maxís mind works very differently to most
people. And Max told me this himself, he said, ďColin all my
life, Iíve seen things differently to most people." He said,
ďYou see a glass of water on the table, I see a mathematical
calculation for a vessel that holds liquid."
ANNEMARIE WHISSON, WIFE: When he comes to invention heís
very, very obsessive and quite stubborn, but in a good way.
MAX WHISSON: I graduated as a doctor in '55. I met
Annemarie whilst I was working on cancer research in London.
ANNEMARIE WHISSON: I trained as a medical technologist in
Switzerland and I was his research assistant. Oh goodness
me, after two weeks, I just fell in love with this man and,
and after a while, you know, I could see, he said he liked
me too and so we had a little bit lunch together or coffee
and, you know from then on it started, you know, I was just
completely besotted with him.
MAX WHISSON: Annemarie and I have two sons and there are
four sons from my first marriage.
ALEX WHISSON, SON: I think in many ways my mumís sacrificed
her own life to support my dadís inventions and his
scientific research work. If it wasnít for my mum, my dad
would be a disorganised brain in the ether somewhere. I mean
she actually roots him in the earth, she actually grounds
him in reality and heíd be completely lost without her.
MARCUS WHISSON, SON: He is an eccentric, the quintessential
nutty professor. For a long time I know in the 1980s he had
a fairly healthy obsession with solar power from cooling
someoneís head with a solar-powered hat to allowing a
bicycle to be used not by pedal power but by solar power.
MAX WHISSON: I worked for many years as a haematologist at
the Red Cross Blood Bank in Western Australia.
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: By the late '80s the magnitude of
the AIDS epidemic was becoming well known and I was
concerned about my daughter, the doctor, getting needle
stick injuries where she was working in an ER hospital in
New York. And I was expressing these concerns to Max, who
miraculously was working on a retractable needle.
To any project he examines Max brings a very fresh
intelligence and so he looked at the needle again and again
and he then came up with a Mark II, a completely different
way of solving the issue involving a sleeve rather than a
PROFESSOR ROGER DAWKINS, SCIENCE CENTRE DIRECTOR: It was
1982 in the early days of HIV that I really got to know Max
Whisson. He does have some weird and wonderful ideas,
thereís no doubt about it.
The Needlesleeve seems to be a very good idea and it seems
to work very well. Iíd like to see it in use.
Max has always been very limited by funds. The country
really needs to support people like Max without pressing
them to early commercialisation because there are hazards in
early commercialisation and many a good project has really
been destroyed by the commercial partners.
ALEX WHISSON, SON: There was a very nasty and prolonged
court case involving my dadís Needlesleeve invention which
basically involved some of his former business associates
laying claim to his inventions. And even though he won that
case actually on three separate occasions, it has left him a
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: The saddest thing for Max is that
his needle, his wonderful hypodermic that prevents
needlestick injury, isnít being manufactured to this day
because of the problems heís had in an out of courts. Great
ANNEMARIE WHISSON, WIFE: I think Max is actually a
renaissance man. Heís so interested in so many things. Heís
interested in physics, biology, cancer, politics nature,
birds. He loves reading poetry and he writes poetry himself
and short stories. He plays the violin in the Fremantle
Symphony Orchestra. He enjoys it immensely. Even when heís
very, very tired he always goes to rehearsal.
MAX WHISSON: For the last nine years Annemarie and I have
lived in separate places. I think at a certain stage of life
there is some sense in having a wife down the road. There
were quite a lot of conflicts.
ALEX WHISSON, SON: My dad was always a workaholic and heíd
often go on extended trips to haematology conferences,
medical conferences, and never invite my mother on those
trips. She felt excluded, I think, from more and more
aspects of his life. And as well, truth be told, he had a
wandering eye for other women. My dadís inventions have cost
a fortune in patents and thatís led to financial
difficulties for the family, which has been tough,
especially on my mum.
MARCUS WHISSON, SON: It has taken enormous emotional toll
and it can be up and down with my parentsí relationship, but
at the end of the day theyíre most in love and really
support one another.
ANNEMARIE WHISSON, WIFE: We see each other every day. He
actually has got less difficult now. I think it makes all
sense now in hindsight. í94, í95 he started to get sometimes
quite aggressive, verbally, and short-tempered and then it
developed even in a kind of paranoia as well. I was really
very puzzled about it and I thought, what is going on? And
sometimes you know he accused us of things which was
completely irrational which he never had done before. And
Marcus just said, ďI think dad is going senile."
ALEX WHISSON, SON: Strange things started happening with my
dadís brain. Heíd be able to read the start of a paragraph
but not the end of it. He couldnít distinguish left from
right, heíd get lost driving from Subiaco to Nedlands on a
route that heíd travelled a thousand times before.
ANNEMARIE WHISSON, WIFE: And then again we said, ďPlease go
to the doctor. We canít do anything." And he said very
aggressively, ďI donít need your advice."
MARCUS WHISSON, SON: It was August the 17th 2000, the day
after my motherís birthday. It was a blessing in disguise
for him. My father was involved in an accident where he hit
a parked ute and he was given a scan and they found a tumour
the size of my fist, a huge tumour in the back of his head,
pressing against his visual cortex.
ALEX WHISSON, SON: And suddenly it was like a revelation
for all of us because we all realised sort of what had been
happening with his brain over these past few years.
MARCUS WHISSON, SON: It was a benign tumour but they
realised that they had to operate immediately because there
was every chance that it would break through his skull.
MAX WHISSON: An incredibly, I tell you, extraordinarily
skilful set of surgeons, got this whole thing out intact.
And my whole brain kind of went, "Ah, now I can work again."
It was quite amazing.
ALEX WHISSON, SON: The amount of energy my dad has is
phenomenal. Heís 76 now, he still works probably 12, 14
hours a day. I have tremendous admiration for my dadís
inventions. Itís never just something trivial. It's the fact
that theyíre inventions that are all geared towards actually
improving human welfare, improving the standards of life,
the conditions of life. Itís never something like, I donít
know, a faster car or something that is just economically
MAX WHISSON: I suppose itís occurred to me a little bit
that I havenít got much time to do all the things that I
really want to do. Do I feel like an old man in a hurry?
Yeah. My grandfather was an irrigation controller in the
little town of Dingee, just not far from Bendigo in
Victoria. So that I suppose gave me an interest in water.
(Outdoors, standing near a dried up lake)
This was quite a lovely lake, a little lake, and I used to
visit it quite a lot, lots of birds came here, walk around
and see these beautiful things. Itís really tragic to see it
like this. You canít look at this without being dreadfully
upset, especially knowing that itís not just a one off and
itís not really accidental. Itís because weíve not taken
care of these things. The water table has gone down so that
the lake is worse because of that because everyoneís sucking
up water to keep their lawns healthy. The bores have gone
down deeper in Perth as in almost every city in the world.
I donít really know where I get my ideas but I do read
widely in scientific books and in things like "New
Scientist". I do look very carefully at what has gone
before. Iím not an expert on anything, but I throw things
around and I sometimes kind of turn ideas upside down and
you suddenly find youíve got a really interesting answer
thatís been staring people in the face for centuries, you
know? After working on the Water Road for some time, I did
some calculations which showed that thereís heaps of water
in the air. And so I began to think, why bother with the sea
water? So why not just collect water from the air and you
can collect the water anywhere, in any small community or
out in the desert or on the coast, wherever you want.
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: The water thatís in the air goes up
for about a hundred miles, constantly replenished by
evaporation from the ocean. Water is constantly extracted
from the air in the form of dew. The technology of
extracting it is known. The American army, for example, uses
great thundering diesel machines to pull it out of the air,
but thatís not very appropriate technology for a world
suffering climate change. Max thinks, no, no, no, I can use
the air to produce the power to produce the water.
MAX WHISSON: The key to the process is to refrigerate the
air as quickly as possible so that water separates from the
air and condenses as drops which will run down into a
The best place to remove heat quickly is as the air hits a
windmill. Now existing windmills did not work out at all
well so I invented a new one and Iíve arranged to have it
refrigerated so that as soon as the wind hits that windmill
it gets cooled.
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: The astonishing thing is if you even
breathe near one of Maxís windmills, the windmill starts
spinning furiously. And the theory is, the more air you can
pass through that windmill, the more air is available for
cooling and for dispensing the water within it. So itís a
very elegant, very simple but tricky idea.
MAX WHISSON: There was a point where I had a bit of a
hitch. I could achieve fairly rapid condensation of water on
a cold plate but it would just stick as little droplets and
not run off the plate quickly so that water could be
collected. And then I came across this little chap, the
little beetle called Stenocara. Itís quite amazing how
creatures over millions of years evolve clever techniques
which are ahead of us.
COLIN BARBOUTIS, BUSINESS PARTNER: I was at Maxís house one
day, and Max said, "Well, if I tell you, youíre going to
think Iím completely mad." And we had the discussion about
the little African beetle that pops out of the sand in the
early morning, does a headstand, faces his tummy into the
breeze, sits there most of the day and a little droplet of
water collects on the fibres on his tummy, runs down his
nose and into his mouth and heís back into his burrow. So,
heís self sufficient in water. And he said, ďSee, I told you
youíd think I was mad." And I said, ďWell I actually donít
know that youíre mad, tell me a little bit more." And he
went into more detail about how heíd been thinking about
this for a little while and that it was do-able. He said,
"Often the simplest things in this world are the hardest to
MAX WHISSON: Observing nature has taught me a lot. Now I
have a surface on the plates which is very like the surface
on this little beetle, the water touches the plates and just
runs quickly off. And so the little beetle has helped a
great deal and Iíd like to thank him.
COLIN BARBOUTIS, BUSINESS PARTNER: I believe it will take
us another 12 months to fully develop this unit, to test it,
to see if the working prototypes do work. I guess Max is a
bit of a crackpot but then again, you'd have to be to come
up with some of these wonderful inventions. Iíve put my
money on that one out there. I think this water project is
something that's very unique. I absolutely believe in Maxís
abilities and have blind faith that he can do this and he'll
get it right. I may be wrong but thatís my thought.
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: Iím a great enthusiast for the
theory of the windmill, and I write a newspaper column about
my old friendís bright new idea. And in all my born days in
over 50 years of writing columns, rarely seen a response
like it - a couple of thousand, a couple of thousand
rapturous emails, some sceptical, but mostly thrilled to the
back teeth, from every nook and cranny on the planet. From
the Middle East, from Venezuela, from Russia, from India,
everyone thinks this is it.
SEAN BLOCKSIDGE, WINE COMPANY MANAGER: Sustainable
farmingís something that weíre looking at more and more.
Itís an imperative, particularly as a wine business.
Certainly we do have some fairly good, consistent rainfall
but weíre certainly seeing decreases. Weíve looked at the
more traditional sources of water in the past. One thing
Margaret River doesnít have a shortage of is wind and
certainly Max Whissonís invention is something worth
investigating. Weíre also regenerating large tracts of land
around the estate and we donít necessarily have the capacity
to irrigate re-vegetation projects, so to be able to put one
of these windmills out there and have it producing water
would be fantastic.
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: Iíve got a feeling there are many
Max Whissons around. At the moment of course heís tilting at
his windmills, a bit like Don Quixote, because governments
are remarkably uninterested, but everyone else is.
MAX WHISSON: The question whether the Water Road idea is
now redundant because of the Water Windmill is one that
several people have asked. I see the Water Road as a much
more practical national or large-scale water producing
PHILLIP ADAMS, FRIEND: And provided Max can live another 10
years and work out a few little minor details, itís going to
be fantastic. A freeway, not just a Water Road, a freeway of
fresh water - wouldnít that be fantastic? And Max wouldnít
even want to charge toll, so it would be a freeway not a
ANNEMARIE WHISSON, WIFE: I think I would quite like to live
with Max again and I think he probably would like to live
with me. I still love him. Itís just, itís a different love,
after, my goodness, forty years. You know, we were
incredibly passionately in love but itís, it has become a
very comfortable love.
MAX WHISSON: Certainly I feel bad that I havenít provided a
secure life. I suppose, yeah, I probably havenít been a
perfect husband or father. But I think itís important to
follow your geist, your spirit, what you think youíre good
APPARATUS AND METHOD FOR COOLING OF AIR
AU2005274673 // CN101014817 //
Abstract -- A wind turbine apparatus for cooling of
air having a wind turbine axially connected to a refrigeration
compressor arranged to compress refrigerant, at least one tube
for conducting compressed refrigerant centrifugally outwards,
a construction for causing the compressed refrigerant to lose
pressure so as to cool fades of the wind turbine, and a
conduit for returning spent refrigerant centripetally to the
Correspondence Name and Address: BACHMAN & LAPOINTE,
P.C.-- 900 CHAPEL STREET -- SUITE 1201, NEW
HAVEN CT 06510 US
U.S. Current Class: 62/93; 62/401; 62/404; 62/426;
U.S. Class at Publication: 062/093; 062/404; 062/426;
Intern'l Class: F25D 17/06 20060101 F25D017/06; F25D
9/00 20060101 F25D009/00;
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
 The present invention relates to an
apparatus and method for cooling air.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
 In accordance with one aspect of the
present invention there is provided a wind turbine apparatus
for cooling of air characterised by comprising a wind turbine
axially connected to a refrigeration compressor arranged to
compress refrigerant, means for conducting compressed
refrigerant centrifugally outwards, means for causing the
compressed refrigerant to lose pressure so as to cool blades
of the wind turbine, and means for returning spent refrigerant
centripetally to the compressor.
 In accordance with a further aspect of
the present invention there is provided a method of condensing
water from ambient air, which comprises driving, by means of
ambient wind, a wind turbine apparatus in accordance with the
present invention mounted in a duct by ambient wind so as to
cause blades of the wind turbine to be cooled and to thereby
cool ambient wind air passing through the duct and the wind
turbine, and causing water vapour in the ambient wind air to
condense to form liquid water, and collecting the liquid
 In accordance with a yet further aspect
of the present invention there is provided a wind turbine
having at least one blade mounted to a compressor housing
mounted on a shaft for axial rotation relative to the shaft,
and means for conducting compressed refrigerant outward
centrifugally and means for returning the refrigerant
centripetally through the or each blade with loss of pressure
and change of phase from liquid to gas so as to cool the or
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
 The present invention will now be
described, by way of example, with reference to the
accompanying drawings, in which:
 FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view
of a wind turbine of the present invention showing a single
 FIG. 2 is a further schematic
plan view similar to FIG. 1 showing a plurality of turbine
 FIG. 3 is a schematic side
elevation of a first embodiment of an apparatus to convey air
in accordance with the present invention;
 FIG. 4
is a view similar to FIG. 3 showing a
second embodiment of an apparatus of the present invention;
 FIG. 5 is a side elevation of a
third embodiment of an apparatus of the present invention;
 FIG. 6 is a plan view of a
further embodiment of a wind turbine of the present invention
as used in the third embodiment of apparatus illustrated in
 FIG. 7 is a side elevation of a
fourth embodiment of an apparatus of the present invention;
 FIG. 8 is a plan view of a yet
further embodiment of a wind turbine of the present invention
used in the fourth embodiment of apparatus illustrated in FIG.
 FIG. 9 is a schematic side
elevation of a compressor used in the air cooling apparatus of
the present invention;
 FIG. 10 is a schematic
side-elevation of a further embodiment of a compressor used in
the air cooling apparatus of the present invention;
 FIGS. 11a, b, c and d are various
views of the compressor of FIG. 10;
 FIG. 12 is a schematic side
elevation of a yet further embodiment of a compressor used in
the air cooling apparatus of the present invention;
 FIG. 13 is a view similar to FIG.
3 showing a fifth embodiment of an apparatus of the present
 FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C show
schematically a scroll refrigerant compressor useful in the
present invention in various positions;
 FIG. 15A is a plan view of an
alternative form of scroll compressor useful in the present
 FIG. 15B is a side view of the
scroll compressor of FIG. 15A.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
 In FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings,
there is shown a wind turbine apparatus 10 comprising a
central shaft 12 having a compressor 13 comprising a housing
14 mounted thereabout. The compressor housing 14 is arranged
to rotate axially relative to the shaft 12. Further, a
plurality of turbine blades 16 (only one of which is shown)
are mounted to the compressor housing 14. As shown, a tube 18
extends outwardly from the housing 14 to a peripheral cooling
coil 20. A convoluted pipe 22 extends from the cooling coil 20
back to the housing 14. There is a constriction 23 at a part
in the pipe 22 adjacent the cooling coil 20.
 In use, the turbine blade 16 is caused to
rotate axially about the shaft 12 by the kinetic energy of
ambient wind air. Rotation of the blade 16 causes rotation of
the compressor housing 14 and refrigerant in the compressor
housing 14 to be compressed so as to undergo a phase change
from gas to liquid. The compressed liquid refrigerant flows
outwardly driven by the compressor and assisted by centrifugal
force along the tube 18 to the cooling coil 20 which acts as a
 As shown, the refrigerant has to travel
almost in a complete circle to reach the pipe 22. This enables
the compressed refrigerant to be cooled during its residence
in the cooling coil 20.
 The refrigerant leaves the cooling coil
20 through the constriction 23 which leads into the pipe 22.
At this point the refrigerant undergoes a rapid loss of
pressure and thus evaporates back to the gaseous phase and
causes the blade 16 to be cooled. The spent refrigerant then
passes centripetally back to the housing 14 on a low pressure
line of the compressor 13.
 The cooling of the blade 16 causes
ambient wind air to be cooled which has useful effects as will
 In FIG. 2, there is shown an apparatus 30
similar to that in FIG. 1. In FIG. 2 there can be seen a
plurality of turbine blades 16, a plurality of tubes 18, a
cooling coil 20 and a plurality of pipes 22. In this
embodiment, the compressed refrigerant passes along the tubes
18 to the cooling coil 20. From the cooling coil 20 the
compressed refrigerant passes through a plurality of short
tubes 28 to an inner manifold 26. From the inner manifold 26
the compressed refrigerant passes through the constrictions 23
into the tubes 22 as described hereinabove. Thus the
compressed refrigerant does not enter the tubes 22 directly
and therefore is cooled by its residence in the cooling coil
20 and the tubes 28 and the inner manifold 26.
 In FIG. 3, there is shown an apparatus 40
which comprises a wind turbine 10. There is also shown a
respective inner manifold 26 adjacent an outer end of each
blade 16. The compressed liquid refrigerant passes initially
from the cooling coil 20 to each inner manifold 26 through
short tubes 28. The refrigerant then passes through
constrictions 23 into the pipes 22 as described hereinabove.
 Further, there is shown in FIG. 3, a wind
collecting duct 42 and an outlet condensation chamber 44. The
duct 42 includes an outer wide portion 46 and an inner
relatively narrow portion 48. The combination of the wide
portion 46 and the narrow portion 48 increases air velocity in
the duct 42.
 Ambient wind air blowing in the direction
of an arrow 50 flows through the wind turbine 10 so as to
cause the latter to rotate such that the blades 16 are cooled.
This causes the air temperature to fall below the condensation
point or dew point and water vapour to condense from the
ambient air to form liquid water. This is enhanced by the
presence of baffles 52 which impede the flow of air and induce
liquid water to collect thereon. The liquid water flows from
the baffles 52 onto a sloping floor portion 54 from which the
liquid water flows into a collection trough 56. The cooled air
from which water has been removed is exhausted through an
upper outlet 58. As can be seen in FIG. 3, the coil 20 is
located externally of the duct 42 so that heat lost from the
compressed refrigerant is dispersed into the ambient air
rather than inside the duct 42.
 In FIG. 4, there is shown an apparatus 60
similar to that in FIG. 3, except that an inlet 62 is
lowermost and is provided with flaps 64. In this case, the
flaps 64 are only opened, as shown, on the windward side of
the apparatus 60. Wind air flows upwardly through the turbine
10 and then through a condensation chamber 66 to exhaust
through a top vent 68. Once again liquid water collects on
baffles 52 and then flows along a sloping floor 54 to collect
in a trough 56.
 In FIG. 5, there is shown an apparatus 70
similar to that in FIG. 4, except that the exhaust vent 68 is
provided with an additional wind turbine 72 to reduce pressure
in the exhaust vent 68 and enhance removal of exhaust air.
Power obtained from the wind turbine is available for any
 In FIG. 6, there is shown a wind turbine
10 having wind guides 62 with flaps 64 between adjacent pairs
of wind guides 62. The flaps 64 are arranged to be opened as
shown by the wider oblong shape when the flaps face in the
direction of the ambient wind.
 In FIG. 7, there is shown an alternative
form of the apparatus of the present invention
 In this Figure there is shown an
apparatus 80 having a funnel 82 at an intermediate level and a
downwardly directed deviation device 84. The device 84 is
arranged to pivot about a substantially vertical axis so as to
orientate itself, in use, into a position which is most
effective in directing the ambient wind air through a wind
turbine 10. Cooled air can then enter a condensation chamber
86 below the wind turbine 10 and deposit moisture on baffles
88. The deposited moisture can then flow into a collection
trough 90. The cooled air depleted of moisture can then pass
upwardly to an upper vent 92.
 In FIG. 8, there is shown a wind turbine
10 similar to that shown in FIG. 7. As shown, the device 84
faces the incoming ambient wind. The wind air is directed into
the wind turbine 10.
 In FIG. 9, there is shown a preferred
form of compressor 90 of the present invention. The compressor
90 has a central rotating cylindrical hub or housing 92 on
which is mounted the blades 16 and refrigerant carrying tubes
of the wind turbine 10 as described herein. The compressor 90
includes compressor blades 94 mounted on a drive shaft 96. The
blades 94 are arranged to be driven at high speed by a gear
train 98 fitted to an inner wall of the hub 92. Used
refrigerant returning centripetally to the compressor 90 as
described above is recompressed and sent out centrifugally as
 In FIG. 10 there is shown an alternative
form of compressor 100 mounted within a cylindrical hub or
housing 102. In this embodiment refrigerant is displaced by a
roller 104 mounted eccentrically on a shaft 106 relative to a
main shaft 108 of the compressor 100.
 As shown in FIGS. 11a, 11b, 11c and 11d,
the compressor 100 operates as follows. The compressor 100
comprises a central shaft 101 having an eccentric 102 mounted
thereon. A rotatable housing 103 is mounted about the
eccentric 102. A tube 104 leads away from the housing 103 and
a pipe 105 leads into the housing 103. A spring biased vane
106 extends through a wall of the housing 103 and contacts an
outer surface of the eccentric 102. Rotation of the housing
103 causes refrigerant contained therein to be compressed and
exited through the tube 104. Similarly, used refrigerant
returns to the housing 103 through the pipe 105. This is
facilitated by the vane 106 which is spring biased into
engagement with the outer surface of the eccentric 102.
 In FIG. 12 there is shown a further
alternative form of compressor 120 mounted within a
cylindrical hub 122. In this embodiment refrigerant is
contained in an elastic chamber 124. The chamber 124 is
alternately contracted and expanded. This is done by eccentric
discs 126 fixedly mounted on a central shaft 128. Each disc
126 has a circular channel 130 formed on an inner side thereof
A slidable bearing 132 is mounted in each channel 130. A
respective rod 134 extends from each bearing 132 to a
respective end plate 136 of the chamber 124. Each rod 134 is
constrained by a circular guide member 138.
 In use, a hub 122 rotates axially about
the shaft 128 and the chamber 124 rotates with the hub 122.
This movement causes the bearings 132 to slide in the channels
130 and the rods 134 to reciprocate correspondingly in the
guide member 138. In this way the chamber 124 is expanded and
retracted so alternately compressing and driving out
compressed refrigerant through a one way valve 140 and
allowing ingress of used refrigerant through a one way valve
 In FIG. 13, there is shown a wind turbine
apparatus 130 which is similar to that shown in FIGS. 4 and 5.
In this embodiment, wind funnels 132 are arranged to direct
ambient wind air over a water surface 134. The water may be
brackish or fresh water. The wind air then passes upwardly
through an upright tube 136 (or a sloping duct on a hillside)
to pass through a wind turbine 10 and thence a condensation
chamber 138 having baffles 52 and a sloping floor 54 from
which water flows into a collection trough 56. Exhaust air is
vented through an outlet 58. Absolute humidity of air entering
the apparatus 130 increases and the density of the air is
therefore lowered. Thus, flow of air due to the wind is
augmented by convection as the wet air rises to the wind
 It is also envisaged that the
refrigeration compressor used in the apparatus of the present
inventions could be in the form of a scroll compressor.
 This embodiment of the present invention
is illustrated in FIGS. 14A, 14B and 14C of the accompanying
 In FIG. 14 there is shown a scroll
compressor 150 having a housing 151 having mounted therein a
circular plate 152. Further, an internal ring gear 154 mounted
on a wind turbine axial shaft (not shown) extends around the
internal periphery of the housing 151. Turbine blades 16 are
mounted to the housing 151 and cause wind to effect axial
rotation of the housing 151 on a fixed shaft (not shown).
 The housing 151 is rotated, in use, by
rotation of blades of a wind turbine as described hereinabove.
 As indicated above, the scroll compressor
150 is mounted on a bearing on the fixed axial shaft (not
shown). One scroll 156 is attached to the housing 151 whilst
another 158 is driven by three planetary gears 160 mounted on
the housing 151 disposed at the apex of an equilateral
triangle. The gears 160 are driven by the ring gear 154. The
scroll 158 maybe described as a wobbling scroll.
 The gears 160 are asymmetrically
connected to the plate 152 by means of respective pivotal
connections 162. In use the housing 151 is axially rotated by
the wind turbine. This causes the planetary gears to be turned
by engagement with the fixed ring gear 154. This causes the
ring gear 154 to rotate and thereby cause rotation of the
planetary gears 160. Rotation of the planetary gears 160
causes the plate 152 to move in a wobbling motion which causes
the scroll 158 to move correspondingly.
 As shown in FIGS. 14A to 14C this causes
gaps between the two scrolls 156 and 158 to be alternately
opened up and closed in a progressive manner. This action
leads to compression of refrigerant vapour contained between
the scrolls such that the vapour is subjected to increased
pressure and is converted-to liquid form.
 As described hereinabove, the compressed
liquid refrigerant is thus urged outwardly of the compressor
housing 151 through a tube (not shown) by centrifugal-force.
Further, as described hereinabove, the spent refrigerant
returns through pipes (not shown) to the interior of housing
151 where it enters the gap between the scrolls 156 and 158.
 In FIGS. 15A and 15B there is shown an
alternative arrangement of scroll compressor 180 useful in the
present invention compared to the scroll compressor of FIG.
14. Like reference numerals denote like parts. It should be
noted in FIG. 15A that only the scroll 158 is shown.
 In this embodiment there is a central
shaft 182 having mounted thereon a housing 184. The housing is
mounted on a bearing on the shaft 182. The shaft 182 may or
may not be continuous. A central gear wheel 186 is fixedly
mounted about the shaft 182. The gear wheel 186 is connected
to three planetary gears 188.
 Further, as can be seen in FIG. 15B one
scroll 156 is fixed to the housing 184 by any suitable means
such as an end plate (not shown). The other scroll 158 is
mounted on an end plate 190 and is connected to the planetary
gears 188 through eccentric pins 192.
 The shaft 182 and the gear wheel 186 are
fixed in position. The housing 184 is arranged to rotate about
the shaft 182 as described hereinabove. The planetary gears
188 engage with the gear wheel 186 and are thereby caused to
rotate as the housing 184 rotates. This rotation of the
planetary gears 188 causes the scroll 158 to move on the
plates 190 by means of the pins 192 such that the scroll 158
undergoes a wobbly motion as described hereinabove.
 Modifications and variations as would be
apparent to a skilled addressee are deemed to be within the
scope of the present invention.
GUST WATER TRAP APPARATUS
Also published as: WO2007009184 (A1) // EP1907637 (A0)
APPARATUS FOR PURIFICATION OF WATER
Apparatus for purification or water having an evaporation
chamber (3), a roof (5) and a condensation chamber (8) and
wind air inlet means (14, 15). The evaporation chamber (3)
contains a body of impure water (2) and the roof (5) can
transmit solar radiation. The solar radiation heats the impure
water, increases evaporation and wind air from the wind air
inlet (14, 15) moves the water laden air into the condensation
chamber (8) where water condenses.
CROSS-AXIS WIND TURBINE ENERGY CONVERTER
The invention relates to a wind energy converter apparatus
(10) which comprises an incoming wind guide (12), a cross-axis
wind turbine (18), a wind containing region (16) and a wind
outlet (24). Preferably, means is provided for cooling the
wind air to enhance precipitation of moisture from the wind
air in the apparatus.
Apparatus and method for cooling of air
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